


Two Cups Of Coffee, Please

by bemoretea



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Humor, M/M, Multiple Relationships, Romance, basically zayn working in a coffee shop and louis getting a kick out of everything, niall's there too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-17 20:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 32,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1401481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bemoretea/pseuds/bemoretea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Zayn finds Louis annoying and Harry hot (though he refuses to admit that), and Liam might just be what Louis needs, if Louis would stop being so stubborn and get with the poor guy, and somehow, Niall learns to deal with all of this.</p><p>(Summaries aren't my thing when it comes to a fic, oops).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Harry Styles

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my first fics, this first chapter is pretty short, but I've got 11 chapters already written, I'll post them sometime soon. Enjoy x

“1.25, Lou.”

“Ugh, Zaynie, what’s the point of having your best friend work at a coffee place, if I never get anything free?” Louis frowned, taking his wallet out of his purse, or what he likes to call ‘man purse’, and handing over the money.

Zayn rolled his eyes, “I already give you an incredible discount, what more do you want?”

It had become an everyday thing, ever since Zayn had gotten the job 3 weeks ago, Louis had become a regular. He would spend most of his day watching Zayn work, sometimes spilling coffee and laughing while Zayn cleans it up.

They had been friends ever since Louis kicked down Zayn’s sandcastle during recess, and Zayn had pushed him into the sand, earning a young Louis’s respect.

“A bloody free coffee once in a while wouldn’t hurt,” Louis mumbled.

“It’d hurt my job, wanker.”

Just as Louis was about to throw his cappuccino at Zayn, a flushed Niall ran into the shop.

Niall was a cute, little Irish blond who worked with Zayn at the shop. He was an incredible friend, as well as a good employee, with the exception of eating a few donuts here and there – and _occasionally_ sleeping on the job. Zayn had only just met Niall when he had gotten the job, they became quick friends. It was hard not to be friends with the Irish bloke, it was like he ate sunshine and happiness and burped it out on everyone. Bad example, but the point is given.

“Sorry I’m late, Z. I ran into this really fit woman, man you should’ve seen the rack on her,” Niall said, drool practically leaving his mouth.

That was another thing with Niall, he was straight, while Zayn and Louis preferred muscles, and a chiseled jaw wouldn’t hurt.

Zayn nodded, he understood what it was like to get distracted, there were a few too many good looking guys running in all their sweaty glory when he made his way to work. “No need for details, Nialler, and it’s alright; you know we’re slow on Wednesdays.”

Niall grinned and grabbed an apron from the back, putting it on.

Louis wrinkled his nose in disgust, “You really need to discuss with your boss about those hideous aprons. That color of green should never have to be seen by the human eye.”

Niall stared down at his apron, “Hey, it isn’t that bad.”

Louis pinched the bridge of his nose and scoffed. “Of course it isn’t, at least not to you, you always have to see the good in just about everything, annoying yet admirable.”

“I do not!”

That earned an eye roll from Louis, “Nialler, if a man came in here and shot me in the face, then proceeded to fall to the ground and cry, you’d find about 100 different reasons as to why the man deserves another chance, even though I’m dead.”

Niall’s cheeks started to flush again, all he could do was glare at Louis. He could never find it in his heart to insult someone.

“Z, you really need to stop with the discounts with this one, I don’t think he deserves it.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, finishing up brooming the place, “Believe me, I would if I could, but the bloke lives on coffee. He’d kill a whole city if I took away his discounts.”

Louis wiped an invisible tear from his eye, “You know me so well.”

Zayn put the broom aside, and walked toward the register, he opened it up to count the profits from yesterday’s rush, he was too tired to do it as he was closing up shop yesterday, just as he was finishing up, the little bell on the top of the door rang.

A tall, green-eyed, man walked in, a mop of curly hair bouncing as he made his way toward the cashier.

This man, or as Louis liked to call him, ‘a fine work from the gods themselves’, had become a regular a day after Zayn started working at the coffee shop. Every day, he’d walk in, order two cups of coffee, then proceed to sit down in the back and watch Zayn intently as he sips on his coffee. He never drank out of the other cup; he just threw it away after he finished with the first one, and then leave the shop with a frown on his face.

Zayn felt incredibly uncomfortable when this guy was around, he’d always stare at Zayn, very hungrily might he add. It was quite disturbing; he tried to convince Niall and Louis that he was a psycho stalker planning on kidnapping Zayn. Niall, of course, said he was nice and would never be a stalker, let alone hurt someone. Louis pouted and complained about not having a sexy guy stalk him when he was way more attractive than Zayn, or at least he seemed to think so.

He smiled, a set of dimples showing, “Two medium cups of coffee, please.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Zayn stared at the floor, while Niall prepared the two coffees, he was certain he could feel the man’s gaze on him.

Niall walked over and grinned, handing the two cups to him, “Here you go, lad.”

He smiled again, the dimples showing yet again, “Thank you, how much?”

“Er, 7.67,” Zayn mumbled, making sure to keep his gaze on everything but the man in front of him.

The green-eyed man handed over a 10, he winked at Zayn, “Keep the change.”

Just as he was about to walk over to the usual spot he sits at, Louis called him over, “Hey, wait, get over here.”

The man walked over to Louis, with a raised eyebrow, “Uh, yeah?”

“You seem to come here a lot, what’s your name?” Louis asked.

The man smiled and looked over at Zayn, making sure to look Zayn directly in the eye, “I’m Harry, Harry Styles.”

 


	2. The New Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Niall, Zayn, and Louis meet the new employee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, chapter 2! Told you I have some chapters saved, I don't think I'll be posting them today.
> 
> Enjoy x.

“Well, Harry Styles, I’m Louis, that’s Niall, and the cashier is—”

“Zayn,” Harry smiled, “I know.”

Louis fixated his eyes on Zayn, a well familiar smirk on his face, one Zayn recognized whenever Louis was thinking of putting him on the spot. “Oh... Well, it was nice meeting you; Zayn here was just dying to know your name.”

Zayn had to remind himself to beat the shit out of Louis later.

Harry’s smile only widened, “Is that so?”

Zayn rubbed the back of his head, not really knowing what to say. “Well... uhh...”

Harry just shook his head, still smiling, and walked to his usual spot in the back of the shop, sipping his coffee and staring at Zayn.

Zayn glared at Louis, “What the hell was that about?”

“What do you mean, dearie?”

“Oh don’t pull that bullshit, ‘Zayn was just dying to know your name’, don’t encourage the stalker,” Zayn said through gritted teeth.

Louis scoffed, “Dear god, Zaynie, he isn’t a stalker, he genuinely seems like a great guy, give him a chance... fuck, now I’m talking like Niall.”

Zayn only rolled his eyes, he was technically judging a book by it’s cover, but who wouldn’t in this certain case? Harry literally stared at him every single day, and who wouldn’t get a little disturbed from that? It’s only natural that someone would.

Zayn sighed, “I just want to know why he buys two fucking cups of coffee, and why he never drinks the other one.”

“Go ask him then, idiot.”

“Fuck no, how many times do I have to tell you? He’s a fucking stalker.”

The bell rang again and in walked in a young man wearing a plaid shirt and skinny jeans, Zayn couldn’t help but notice Louis actually do a double take on the young man. The man gave a quick look around then walked up to Zayn.

Zayn smiled, “Hey, what can I get ya?”

The man rubbed the back of his head, quite sheepishly. “Actually, I got a job here... I was supposed to start today.”

Zayn’s eyes widened, “Shit, I completely forgot, sorry mate, well... the aprons are in the back, and—”

The man laughed, “It’s alright, uhh—” he looked at Zayn’s name tag, “Zayn, I got the tour when I came in for the interview, I’m Liam.”

Zayn grinned and shook Liam’s hand, “Zayn,” his smile dropped, “Shit, you already knew that.”

Niall walked out from the back with a bit of frosting on his cheek, he grinned, “Hey, this the new guy?”

Liam smiled, “Yeah, Liam, and you are?”

“Niall, I don’t usually wear my name tag, I lose it all the time.”

Niall handed him an apron, Liam made a sort of disgusted face, “Why on earth would a green this ugly exist?”

Zayn looked over to Louis, expecting him to jump up and shout, ‘finally someone agrees with me’, but he was kind of surprised, to say the least, to find Louis staring at Liam, practically drooling over him. Zayn smirked at him, a smirk that said, ‘so getting you for this’, but Louis didn’t even pay attention to him, his eyes stayed on Liam.

Zayn could only guess that Liam must’ve felt eyes on him, he watched as Liam turned around toward Louis and gently smiled at him.

They seriously just stayed staring at each other, it was actually kind of funny, at least Zayn seemed to think so, Niall looked like he was about to explode from happiness. A minute passed by, and Zayn coughed awkwardly, earning both of their attention.

“We should get to work...” Zayn suggested, mainly to himself and Niall, since Liam and Louis didn’t even move the slightest.

Niall pouted, “There’s literally only one customer here, why the hell did you ruin their moment, Z?!”

Louis’s face instantly heated up, “M-Moment?! For god’s sake, Niall, there wasn’t a ‘moment’.”

Niall rolled his eyes, “Sure, when I meet someone, I also stare at them like I’ve been in love with them for years.”

“You little Irish fuck, you’re asking for something to be thrown at you, aren’t you?”

If there was anything Louis hated the most, it was when people accused him of being attracted to someone. Louis has had past ‘relationships’ that ended up disastrous. Zayn didn’t think of them as relationships, even if Louis seemed to think so, it was more of just using each other for sex. Louis told Zayn it was just sex whenever Louis wanted it, but they weren’t allowed to have sex with other people. Of course, Louis’s other partner always found someone else to sleep with, which eventually caused Louis to give up on his so called ‘relationships’, he hadn’t had a decent one in about 8 months.

“Holy crap, Harry? What are you doing here?” Liam asked, his mouth quickly erupting into a smile.

Zayn blinked, thoughts being interrupted by the mention of Harry’s name, not that Harry was all that important to him. Sure he was attractive, with those beautiful green eyes, and that insanely adorable smile. Not that Zayn noticed those things, of course he didn’t, just no.

Harry stood up and walked up to the new guy, Liam, engulfing him in a hug, “Li, you didn’t tell me you were working in this coffee shop.”

Liam pulled away and grinned, “Well, you should’ve assumed so, it was the one closest to my flat, wait a minute, is this the coffee guy?”

Harry blushed, and Zayn thought it was the most adorable thing he had ever seen, wait, what? No, just no.

“Let’s not mention that, alright?” Harry said, bashfully, he avoided Zayn’s gaze, and Zayn started to wonder if he, himself, was the _coffee guy_.

Louis raised an eyebrow, “You know Styles?”

Liam nodded, “We’ve been friends since we were little, he’s my best mate.”

Niall gushed, “D’aww, well isn’t that just precious?”

Louis rolled his eyes at Niall’s adoration of the two. “Shut up, you little leprechaun.”

“Louis, why do you always have to insult me?” Niall asked, a pout making it’s way on to his face.

“Why do you always have to be girly about everything? And you call yourself straight.”

“That’s stereotyping, Lou.”

“No, Niall, it’s scientifically proven, straight men are supposed to be manly, you were born with the ‘I’m straight but I act gayer than my two gay best friends’ disorder.”

It took all of Zayn’s might not to reach over and slap the shit out of Louis, he shook his head, “You’re a complete moron, you realize that, right?”

 “Twat,” Louis muttered under his breath.

Harry chuckled, “What a loving group of friends.”

“You get used to it over time,” Louis said with a slight shrug.

Zayn couldn’t help but agree with Louis. When he first met Louis, he wasn’t sure if his little 8-year-old self could handle him. Hell, he still can’t handle him, but even if Louis was basically insane, you couldn’t help but love him. He was used to Louis and his antics, and even if Niall just joined them in their friendship, it was like he’s known them for ages, he fit right in, and Zayn loved both of them.

Harry looked at his watch and frowned, “Well, I should go…” he walked over to his spot and threw out both of the cups, one being completely untouched, he made his way toward the door, and Zayn couldn’t stop himself, he just had to know.

“Wait…” Zayn nearly whispered, he was kind of hoping Harry wouldn’t hear him and make his merry way out of the shop so Zayn could say he tried, but still could avoid confrontation.

Harry stopped and looked over at Zayn, — he obviously heard Zayn – a smile instantly making it’s way on to his face, “Yes?”

Zayn cleared his throat, “I just… really want to know. Why do you always buy two cups of coffee, and never drink the other one?”

Harry raised an eyebrow, “Wow, I didn’t think you noticed that, hm,” his smile widened, “Why don’t we discuss this over dinner, say… tonight?”

“I uh—”

“Great, meet me at the restaurant across the street from here, 8ish?”

Zayn began to panic. “Well, I never really—”

“Wonderful, see you then, Zayn.” Harry gave one last wink to Zayn, then left.

Louis actually burst out in laughter, it’s amazing Zayn hasn’t killed the little twat yet, it’s amazing anyone who has ever known Louis hadn’t killed him.

Louis wiped a tear from his eye, “My little Zaynie has a date, they grow up so fast.”

Little fucker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully you enjoyed my shitty writinggg, I'm hoping you guys are enjoying this so far, I'm not sure if you do...
> 
> But yeah, I'll post 2 more chapters tomorrow ^.^


	3. Stood Up And My Number?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Zayn and Louis turn on each other and end up getting one another in difficult situations that they very much don't want to be involved in, except, maybe they do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doubt I'll be able to post chapter 4, I've got to edit it and stuff, and I've got loads of homework it's unbelievable, the most homework I've had all year (shoot me now). Enjoy x

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU STOOD HIM UP?!”

Zayn winced and moved the phone a little farther away from his ear, even at 10 in the morning, Louis was still the loudest person in the world. “I didn’t go on the date, he ate alone, I stayed home while he went on the date, Zayn no there, Harry there, how many more different definitions do you want?”

He heard Louis groan and mumble a few profanities, “Stop being a twat, you know what I mean.”

Zayn had thought about going on the date all night, he couldn’t help but still think of Harry as that creep that stares at him almost all day. He kept reminding himself how dangerous Harry could be, but he also reminded himself that he could be over thinking it, Harry did seem sweet, and he always tipped well, but after an hour and a half of pacing around his living room, Zayn decided to stay home and feel guilty about it in the morning.

He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “Look, it was kind of sweet and all, but I barely know him, and I still think he’s a creeper. Plus, I didn’t exactly agree to go on the date; he sort of forced it on me.”

“So what? He’s a fucking saint, have you SEEN him?! My god, Zayn, you’re such an idiot.”

Zayn scoffed, “It’s not always about looks, he seems cool and all, but wasn’t it a little creepy how when you were introducing us, he already knew my name?”

“You freaking work there, you over dramatic little troll,” Louis mumbled over the phone.

“So does Niall!”

“Ugh, Zayn, that little leprechaun never wears his name tag, you, however, do. Why are trying to find so many things wrong with him? Be flattered that he finds you worthy enough for a date.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to be mean, Lou?”

“It means, you may be attractive, but you’re dorky and you over analyze everything, INCLUDING Harry.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, even if Louis couldn’t see him, “I do not—”

“Okay, first, don’t roll your eyes at me, and stop wondering how I knew, I’ve known you my whole life, Zee, and secondly, yes you do, and you also like to deny negative things about you ‘cause you swear you’re like the perfect specimen ever made.”

Zayn mentally cursed, he knew Louis was right, but he wouldn’t let him get the benefit of the doubt. “That’s not true…”

“Really? How long did it take for you to do your hair this morning?” Louis asked with a slight annoyance in his voice.

“I haven’t even gotten up from my bed; you rudely woke me up this morning, after I sent you that text from last NIGHT.”

Louis gasped, “So you’re not working at the coffee place today?”

“No, the new guy, Liam, officially started working there today, don’t know why it wasn’t official yesterday, but anyway, boss decided to give me the day off.”

“The NEW GUY is working there? Without you?! Oh god, oh god.”

Zayn raised his eyebrow, “The hell is wrong with you?”

“I’m parked in front of the coffee shop…”

Zayn didn’t understand, “Okay, so? Go in?”

“No, I can’t, but I need coffee, oh god, Zayn come down here and take my order,” Louis pleaded with such desperation in his voice that Zayn almost gave in and drove right to the coffee shop, but he knew better than to give in to Louis so easily, he’d never leave Zayn alone, probably bombarding him with favors.

“Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“The new guy, alright? It’s the new guy, he seems… I don’t know, just weird, I don’t like him.”

Zayn laughed, “You don’t like him? You guys stared at each other intensely when you first laid eyes on one another; it was like I was watching one of those sappy movies you always force me to watch.”

“Shut up, you wanker, he just seems fake. I mean seriously, who on earth is that nice? You know how much he charged me for my second coffee yesterday while you were in the back? Nothing, absolutely nothing, YOU haven’t even ever given me anything free.”

“Maybe he just likes you, and you don’t deserve anything free, I know from experience.”

“Likes me, pft, yeah right, maybe he’s secretly plotting my murder, we don’t know these things, Zayn.”

Zayn shrugged, “Likes you, secretly planning your murder, I’m completely fine with either one.”

Zayn knew Louis threw the phone somewhere, he heard cursing followed by a bunch of muffled noises.

Louis groaned, “You’re a terrible friend, you incompetent loser.”

“Hey,” Zayn began, “You say I’m over analyzing, but you are, too, besides, I doubt my boss would hire an undercover murderer.”

“Whatever, get down here, now.”

“What? No, it’s my day off, and I plan on spending it as far away from that place as possible.”

He could almost feel Louis glare at him as Zayn heard him scoff, “Get down here or I’ll tell everyone you still sleep with stuffed animals.”

“His name is Ron and he isn’t a stuffed—” Zayn heard the line go dead and sighed, “Animal…”

He got up knowing he’d have to go over to the shop for Louis, not because of the stuffed animal thing, although that would be embarrassing, but only because he knew if he didn’t, Louis would never stop complaining to him about it for as long as Zayn lived.

He got ready, making sure to spend only 5 minutes on his hair, – he timed himself, also making sure it was 10 minutes less than he originally spends on it – and made his way to the shop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was safe to say when Zayn got to the shop, everyone in there could probably feel the tension. Harry and Louis looked like they were in a pretty deep conversation, and when Zayn walked in, they both turned to look at him, getting awfully quiet. Niall and Liam seemed to notice it, too; they stopped working and turned to look at Zayn. It stayed quiet between them for a few minutes, the sound of customers talking quietly amongst themselves in the background.

Louis was the first to break the silence, “Zaynie, so nice of you to join us, what brings you here?”

“You told me to come here… well, rather threatened,” Zayn said, as if it were plainly obvious.

Louis only chuckled nervously, “Let’s not dwell in the past, come, sit.”

Zayn walked over and sat next to Louis, averting Harry’s gaze.

Louis coughed, and mumbled his ringtone, obviously not caring if it sounded like the real thing or not. “Well, I have to take this, I’ll be right back.”

Zayn quickly looked over at Louis and glared; Louis only smirked and walked out of the shop. Harry scooted over a bit so that he was sitting across from Zayn, Zayn still made sure to avoid looking at Harry.

“So, not even gonna look at me, huh?”

Zayn sighed, “It’s just a little… awkward for me right now…”

“Well, you weren’t the one waiting for about 2 hours before the owner of the restaurant screamed at you to get out and get a life,” Harry mumbled, a pout forming on his face.

And there it was, guilt finally settling its way into Zayn, “Sorry… I just kind of freaked myself out… guess I really did over analyze things.”

Harry smirked, “Maybe a bit…”

“Look, I’m sure you’re a nice guy, but I really don’t want to do… this… I don’t really know you, and... what are you doing?”

Harry had taken out a piece of paper and was scribbling something down; he only shook his head and kept writing. When he finished he passed the note over to Zayn, it had what Zayn could only assume Harry’s number, and a little note saying ‘get to know me ;)’, when Zayn looked up, Harry had already stood up and put on his jacket.

Zayn raised his eyebrow, “Leaving so soon?”

Harry shrugged and threw out the two cups, one obviously untouched, “Places to go, people to see, you know the deal.”

Zayn nodded, not really understanding exactly what he meant, but, hey, maybe he was a secret spy or something. “Ah right, see you then…”

“Hope for a phone call later, or a text, either one is fine, see ya.” Harry gave him one last wink and walked out.

As if on cue, Louis walked back in and ran over to Zayn, sitting in front of him, he squealed in delight, “How’d it go?”

“I hate you.”

“Did he ask you out on another date?”

“I should kill you.”

“Did you say yes? Oh god, please tell me you said yes!”

“I should throw out all of your shoes and only leave 10 pairs of crocs for you to wear.”

Louis rolled his eyes, “Again with the over dramatic stuff, calm down, twat, I did you a favor.”

Liam walked over with a small plate of cookies and another coffee for Louis.

Louis looked up, “How much?”

Liam smiled, “Free of course, always free for you.”

Zayn tried his best not to laugh at Louis’ face; Louis looked like he was in serious distress, “Come on, let me pay something, anything.”

“Nope,” Liam shook his head, “As long as I’m around, you’ll never have to spend on coffee ever again.”

Zayn could’ve sworn he heard Louis mumble a ‘fuck’.

Liam looked down, playing with his fingers, obviously nervous about something, “As long as I’m here, I was kind of wondering if I… If I could have your number…? Or I could give you mine… whatever’s fine.”

Louis’s mouth dropped open, “M-My num—”

Zayn smirked, time for sweet revenge, “Of course he’ll have your number, y’know the lad was gonna ask you himself, but the poor bloke got too nervous.”

Liam beamed, “Really?”

Louis’ mouth kept opening and closing, Louis unable to utter a coherent thought.

Zayn was loving every minute of this, “Yeah yeah, he would not shut up about you, my god, kept me up all night.”

Liam’s smile widened, if that was even possible, he wrote down his number and put it in front of Louis, “Well, I have to get back to work,” Liam winked, “Call me, yeah?”

And with that, Liam walked back to the register, Louis focused his gaze on Zayn and glared, “You deserve to die.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, making sure to quote Louis, “Shut up, ‘I did you a favor’.”

“We are no longer friends.”

“You need me.”

“Now I’m definitely telling everyone you sleep with a stuffed pet.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you completely want Liam.”

Louis started throwing cookies at Zayn, “Die die die die!”

Well, they were both kind of in a predicament, weren’t they?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked it (and seem to ignore my shitty writing ((maybe I should use another adjective... is shitty even considered an adjective?))).


	4. To Text Or Not To Text?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Zayn's not sure if he should, and Louis is as pushy as always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can tell just how old this is by the Teen Wolf reference I use, the episode was like season 3a.

“Just fucking text him.”

This had been going on for about an hour straight. Zayn was sitting mindlessly on the couch, flipping through channels while Louis kept on pestering Zayn to text Harry.

Zayn groaned, “I’m not gonna text him, just leave me the hell alone, you nuisance.”

“Why the hell did you invite me over if you’re going to be an absolute bore all day? Not even going to text Harry and cause SOME excitement in the boringness you call your life,” Louis said, a rather bored expression on his face.

“I didn’t even invite you over, you just barged into my flat like you own the place, and my life is plenty exciting.”

“Sure it is, with all the coffee making and channel flipping, so jealous.”

Zayn rolled his eyes and flipped Louis off, and he continued flipping through channels. He wanted to text Harry, he just didn’t want to seem desperate, wasn’t there some rule that said wait 3 days to contact someone who had just given you their number? Zayn could’ve sworn he read it in one of Louis’ magazines.

“Text him," Louis whined.

And there goes Louis again, Zayn ignored him and paid attention to his channel flipping, oh look, Teen Wolf was on.  **(A/N: Teen Wolf is the shit)**

“TEXT HIM!”

If there was one thing Zayn couldn’t do, it was ignore Louis. It wasn’t because he was a good friend, or because he cared about Louis, only because Louis was just way too annoying sometimes, but he told himself to stick through with this ignoring, he really didn’t want to text Harry.

“Zaynieeee, come on, stop it, you’re hurting my feelings… text him.”

He kept his gaze on Teen Wolf; it was nearing the end of the episode, sadly, and holy shit.

“Did Boyd just die…?”

Louis raised his eyebrow, “What?”

“Boyd… Kali just made Derek stab Boyd with his own claws, oh fuck no.”

“You’re such a woman, oh my god," Louis screeched as he face-palmed.

“HOLY SHIT, BOYD’S DEAD!”

Louis scoffed, “Probably because you didn’t text Harry,”

“KALI JUST MADE DEREK KILL BOYD, AND ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS ME TEXTING HARRY?!”

“Yes, because unlike you, I am a normal human being. IT’S A SHOW, ZAYN.”

Zayn wiped a tear from his eye, “I’m calling Niall, he understands me.” He dialed Niall’s number and pressed call.

“’Ello? Niall speakin’.”

Zayn sniffed, “Have you heard?”

“No, what’s wrong man?”

“Boyd’s gone.”

“WHAT?! NO, YOU’RE LYING!” Niall yelled in disbelief.

Louis face palmed, “I’m friends with a bunch of imbeciles.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, “I wouldn’t call 2 ‘a bunch’, loser.”

Zayn felt a pillow smack him the face, well, ouch? He hung up on Niall after about 2 minutes of them crying together.

Louis let out a noise that didn’t really sound human-like, “Can you freaking text Harry now?”

“How about this, I’ll text Harry, if you text Liam.”

“Ew no, how about you text Harry, and I won’t strangle you.”

“That’s the deal, if you won’t do it, I won’t either.”

Louis pouted, “Fine, I’ll do it later, do it now so I can judge you.”

Zayn rolled his eyes and took his phone out; he scrolled down to Harry’s number and clicked on ‘Send Message’. He took a deep breath, “Do I really have to do this? What if he thinks I’m desperate?”

“Aww, Zayn cares about what Harry thinks of him.”

“Shut up, you arse,” he sighed and sent a quick message before putting his phone back on the table.

Louis threw his hands up in the air and groaned, “What the fuck? ‘Hey’? That’s it? That’s all you sent him? You suck.”

“What more was there to put? ‘Hey, Harry, just sending you this text because my best friend won’t shut the fuck up about it’, how’s that sound?”

“Aw, you said best friend, you rarely use it, I’M SPECIAL!”

“Wanker, you have to text Liam now.”

Louis quickly shook his head, “No I don’t, I said I’d do it later.”

Zayn glared, “Do it now, or else I’ll steal your phone and do it for you.”

“Fine fine.”

Zayn watched as Louis took out his phone, quickly typed a ‘Hi’, and sent it to Liam, “You judge me for saying ‘Hey’, but you go ahead and say ‘Hi’?”

“Yes, that’s how life works, suck it up. I’m going to go pop some popcorn, we’re watching Titanic.”

Zayn watched Louis stand up and head toward his kitchen, he groaned, “Again? We’ve watched it like 9 times already.”

He heard Louis shout a ‘You know you love it’, and he kind of did love that movie, not that he’d let anyone ever know that. His mind went back to the text, he had just gotten Harry’s number today, and it seemed a little rushed. What if Harry really did see him as someone desperate? What if Harry was busy and he interrupted something? He felt his phone vibrate and he picked it up and looked; 1 new message, from Harry.

**_9:14 pm: Harry S._ **

_hey I really hope this is zayn, if it is then thank you for texting me i’ve been kinda paranoid about you texting me and I’m just kinda happy that you did and didn’t do that stupid wait 3 days crap I read in a magazine somewhere, but yeah I’ll shut up now so just… hey :)_ _  
_

Zayn couldn’t help but smile to himself. Alright, maybe he was just being a little paranoid, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm laughing at how crappy my writing is, I mean, I think it at least got somewhat better...


	5. Louis Did What?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Louis makes a mistake and Niall has to fix shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't been updating, my flash drive was destroyed by my dog, so I had to transfer the chapters from Wattpad onto the new flash drive I bought (this one more durable), but yeah, hope you enjoy my shitty writing :) x.

**_2:15pm: Harry :)_ **

_ok i walked into the shop and you’re not here why not?_

Zayn looked at his phone and smiled, ever since the night before, he and Harry had been texting each other non-stop. It resulted in him getting no sleep whatsoever, and him ending up calling out because he was just too damn tired to work.

**_2:16pm_ **

_well, bc of our all nighter thing im kinda too tired to go into work today, u will just have to deal w/ liam and niall :DD now leave me alone i need my beauty sleep_

Zayn finished his lunch and went back to his bedroom, he had practically slept all day, but a little bit more sleep wouldn’t kill anyone. He laid down on his bed and closed his eyes, his phone vibrated again and he groaned, grabbing it.

**_2:19pm: Harry :)_ **

_are you kidding me? if you get anymore good looking i dont think ill be able to handle myself around you ;)_

He shook his head, a light blush on his cheeks, and he put his phone back on his side dresser, he closed his eyes and fell asleep, hoping to dream about a certain curly haired guy.

 

 

About 3 hours later, Zayn felt someone shaking him; he groaned and stayed asleep, maybe it was just a dream? He heard someone calling his name repeatedly, so he opened his eyes. He didn’t expect Louis to be right next to his bed, right in front of his face.

He shrieked, a manly shriek might he add, very manly, and slapped Louis.

Louis grabbed his cheek. “Ow, you wanker! That fucking hurt.”

Zayn sat up. “Why the fuck are you in here?!”

“Nice to see you, too, Zaynie, and by the way, you could’ve told me you weren’t coming in to work today.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Louis groaned, “I always barge into your flat, why are you so surprised?”

“Because I was fucking sleeping, and you usually go away when I am, you know I don’t like to be disturbed from my sleep."

Louis rolled his eyes and sat next to Zayn. “It’s 5 in the god damn evening, you should be awake by now, twat.”

Zayn sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Is there a reason why you’re here?”

Louis bit his lip, and looked away from Zayn. “No… not really..?”

 Zayn narrowed his eyes at him; Louis was definitely hiding something, something big. “You’re lying, what did you do?”

Louis turned to Zayn and glared at him. “And what makes you think I did something?”

Zayn laughed, “It’s that or you did  _someone._ ” He kept laughing, only to be interrupted by a slap from Louis. He rubbed his arm and looked over at Louis to glare at him, but Louis was staring at the ground, biting his lip.

Zayn’s eyes widened, “You didn’t…”

Louis collapsed on Zayn’s bed quite dramatically, “Oh, Zayn, I was weak!”

“What the hell, Louis?! With who?”

Louis threw an arm over his eyes. “… Erm, with Liam… and before you ask… in the supply closet,”

Zayn almost threw up, he gagged a bit. “Where I freaking work?! Louis, we keep our fucking supplies there!”

“No shit, that’s why it’s called a ‘supply closet’, and you call me stupid.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, “That’s not the point! You had sex in our freaking supply closet with Liam! ...Oh, fuck...”

“What?” Louis asked, mouth agape.

“You do realize there’s a camera in there, right? Someone’s got a tape of you and Liam going at it.”

Louis’ eyes widened, he shoved Zayn off the bed. “Shut up, you’re lying!”

Zayn rubbed his head and sat up. “Ouch, twat, that fucking hurt, and I’m not lying, there’s literally like 50 tapes of Niall stealing muffins.”

“Oh my god, no no no, tell someone to get it! Or you get it, you work there!”

“I’m not getting it, I’m sure Liam’s still—”

“NO! We are  _not_  making Liam get it, call Niall or something!” Louis shouted.

Zayn scoffed, “What’s wrong with—” Zayn was interrupted by his phone going off.

Louis sat up and reached over to grab it. “Hello?!” He waited for a reply. “Oh ew, this isn’t Niall,” he said as handed the phone over to Zayn. “It’s your boyfriend.”

He grabbed the phone, and Louis sat near Zayn on the floor and moved his head near the phone to hear, Zayn rolled his eyes. “Hello?”

“Hey,” it was Harry, of course, “I just really wanted to hear your voice, it’s been forever since I heard it.”

Zayn smiled, “It’s only been a day.”

“Yeah, but that’s way too long, my coffee wasn’t the same without you here.”

“Glad to hear you only use me for my coffee,” Zayn said, a soft smile on his lips, it kind of scared that Harry had this effect on him, but he decided not to worry about that at the moment.

“Of course not, use you for your amazing looks too,” Harry said.

Zayn found himself blushing for the second time today, and Zayn never blushes, what the hell was Harry doing to him? “U-Umm… w-well—”

Louis groaned, “Enough with the stupid flirting, although it’s kind of cute, ask him if he’s still at the coffee shop!”

Zayn sighed, “Sorry to bother you about this, but are you still at the coffee shop?”

“Uhh, yeah, I am, but—”

Louis jumped on top of Zayn and snatched his phone out of his hands, putting it on speaker, and interrupting Harry. “IS NIALL THERE?”

“Louis? Hey, yeah he is, why?”

Zayn started squirming underneath Louis, “Get the fuck off me!”

Louis smacked Zayn’s head and muttered a ‘shut up’, “Can you pass your phone off to him, pleaaasee?”

“Uh yeah, sure, hold on,” Harry mumbled.

There was a bunch of muffled noises before they heard a familiar Irish accent, “What d’ya want, Louis?”

“That’s no way to talk to your  _best_  friend. Anyway, I know I’m  _sometimes_  mean to you, okay, maybe _all_ the time, but I do it out of love, you know? You mean so much to me, you little precious leprechaun, and I just want you to know—”

Niall sighed, “Once again, what d’ya want, Louis?”

“Ugh, I was trying to be nice, but can you go to wherever you keep your security tapes and grab the one that was taped today?” Louis asked, annoyance in his voice.

“Sure, I was about to do it anyway, stole like 10 muffins today, which is a little too many if you ask me, and does it even matter if I did steal the muffins? No one orders them anyway, if anything I’m doing them a—”

“Niall, I asked you to take the tape, I didn’t ask for a life story.”

“Fine, whatever, I’ll get it, I’ll get it," Niall murmured.

“And bring it to Zaynie’s flat when you’re done, alright? I don’t want you to throw it somewhere where some perv could get it and post it all over the internet.”

“Yeah yeah, what’s on this any—”

“BYE!” Louis quickly hung up on Niall and sighed.

“Can you get the fuck off me now?” Zayn asked, glaring at Louis.

“Oh, sorry,” Louis whispered as he got off Zayn and sat on his bed again, he stared out the window.

Zayn watched him and his eyes softened, he knew this Louis. Louis reacted this way whenever he got too close with a boy, Zayn knew after this incident, Louis was going to try with all his might to ignore Liam, and Liam would just be left with a broken heart. Liam seemed like the first boy that actually cared about Louis, and that’s what Zayn loved about him. Liam didn’t deserve to be ignored by Louis, especially not after they had just had sex. He was going to get them together; somehow, Louis deserved someone like Liam, someone who genuinely cared for him.

Zayn sat next to Louis and put his arm around him. “You deserve him, you know? He cares about you, Lou, don’t do this to him…”

Louis took Zayn’s arm off of him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Louis, don’t do—”

“Stop, Zayn, this isn’t any of your business, stay out of it.”

He was about to protest, but he heard the door to his flat slam open, followed by none other than Niall shouting a ‘where the fuck are you guys’. He sighed and walked out of his room toward the living room, where he found Niall chewing something, a bag of chips in his hands, and sitting on his couch.

Niall looked up and grinned. “Hey, where’s the other one?”

Louis walked in right on cue.“You have the tape?”

Niall lifted it up. “Right here, what’s on here anyway?”

Louis ignored him and hug-tackled Niall, he laid on top of Niall kissing his face repeatedly, until Niall shoved him off, resulting in Louis falling face first on to the floor. Zayn couldn’t help but laugh, payback’s a bitch.

Niall wiped his face, obviously disgusted with Louis’ kisses. “No need for that, man, what’s so important about this tape?”

Zayn spoke before Louis could.“That tape you’re holding, it’s Liam and Louis’ sex tape.”

Niall’s eyes widened, he threw the tape at Louis. “What the fuck, Louis?! Wait, hold on… you and Liam?! I knew there was somethin’ going on there.”

Louis rubbed his forehead, right where the tape hit him, he glared at Niall. “You’re an evil little leprechaun, I hope Santa mistakes you for one of his elves and takes you to his workshop where you’ll have to do free labor for the rest of your life. But if you must know, yes… we did, and I’d rather not talk about it.”

Niall shrugged, “Didn’t wanna talk about you guys having sex anyway, not exactly what a straight man wants to hear.”

Louis got up and sat next to Niall. “Piss off, twat.”

Zayn grinned at the two idiots he called his best friend, his phone vibrated yet again, and he took it out, 1 new text.

**_6:11pm: Harry :)_ **

_can you meet me in front of the coffee shop in about two hours please? and if you stand me up again i swear to god zayn malik, i’ll get louis to annoy the living hell out of you_

Zayn smiled, he literally felt his heart skip a beat, should he go see a doctor for that? He decided it’s just something that happened whenever the mention of Harry was heard, or whenever Harry spoke to him, texted him, even looked at him, not that he’d ever admit to that.

**_6:13pm_ **

_wasnt planning on standing u up anyway ;)_

 

And he really wasn’t, he really did want to try with Harry, hopefully things wouldn’t spiral out of control, and he wouldn’t end up like Louis. Speaking of Louis, Zayn really had to get Louis and Liam together, he’d need back up, though, maybe from a curly haired guy, and a joyful blond?

 


	6. The Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with Zarry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys ^.^, decided to upload another chapter today, 6 more chapters till I'm all caught up, haha.
> 
> Enjoy x.

Zayn used the two hours he had to the best of his ability, which included about an hour of Louis throwing clothes at him to wear, until Zayn kicked him out of his room and just decided on wearing a white button up with black skinny jeans and some white high tops, about 30 minutes of showering, 15 minutes of doing his hair, and 15 more minutes of pacing around his room, praying he doesn’t screw anything up.

He stared at himself in the mirror. “You can do this, Malik, it’s just a small date, you’ve been on a date before, and you’ve got this.”

He heard a loud groan behind his closed door; followed by obnoxiously loud knocking that could only be Louis. “Are you seriously giving yourself a pep talk? You fucking weirdo, just come out here so I can check your outfit, hopefully you didn’t fuck up too badly.”

Zayn rolled his eyes and opened the door, Louis grabbed his shoulders and examined him thoroughly before a small smile appeared on his face. “You look sexy as fuck, I’m proud.”

Zayn scoffed, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I always dress nice.”

“Only because of me, if I wasn’t around, you’d look like a homeless man everyday.”

Zayn opened his mouth to protest, but his phone vibrating had interrupted him, he picked it up and read the recent text.

**_8:17pm: Harry :)_ **

_change of plans meet me @ park :D and hurry your cute arse up_

Zayn couldn’t help but blush at the last couple of words, and of course, Zayn blushing made Louis curious, so Louis stole his phone and read it before turning Zayn around and examining him again, Louis scoffed, “I’ve seen better.”

Zayn spun around and faced him. “Don’t check out my arse, freak.”

“I’m offended, why is it okay for Harry to do it? I’m better looking, so you should feel honored that I even checked you out in the first place.”

Zayn rolled his eyes and shook his head, he hadn’t replied, knowing Louis would argue with him all night, and he obviously had better plans, so he walked past him and toward his living room where Niall was still sitting on his couch, eating god knows what. He stood in front of Niall, earning his attention. “So, how do I look?”

Niall groaned, “Fine, now move, Icarly’s on.”

He heard footsteps coming closer to them, which could only be Louis. “Fuck, Niall, how are you straight?”

Niall sighed, “It’s simple, Lou, yay fer vaginas and boo fer penis’ unless it’s my own.”

Louis raised his eyebrow, “Does that mean you’re attracted to your own penis? That makes you a little gay.”

Niall reached over and pinched Louis, which earned him a slap across the face, and it only went downhill from there. They ended up rolling around on Zayn’s floor, pinching and slapping each other; it took them about 2 minutes to break apart and call a truce.

Louis was panting, “Damn leprechaun… your pinches fucking hurt.”

Niall made a pinching motion with his left hand, “There’s more where that came from if you question my sexuality one more time.”

Zayn sighed, “As much as I’d like to stay here and watch you two twats fight over what’s gay and what isn’t, I actually have something to do with my life.”

Louis gasped, “That’s right, after 20 years, Zaynie finally has a date.”

Zayn walked over to Louis and pinched him as hard as he could, Louis winced and glared at him, rubbing the spot where Zayn pinched him, Zayn grinned, “That’s what you get, wanker, anyway, I better get going.”

Niall got up and practically dragged him out of the door, he grabbed Zayn’s face and placed a sloppy kiss on Zayn’s cheek. “Be home by 12, any later and I’ll be forced to go around with a megaphone screaming about how you still sleep with a stuffed animal.”

Zayn groaned, “Are you two going to use Ron against me for the rest of my life?”

Niall and Louis didn’t even have to think about it, they both just nodded, Zayn sighed and was about to leave, but Louis quickly got up and pulled his arm back. He turned toward Louis and raised his eyebrow, Louis grabbed his face and squished his cheeks, he squinted his eyes and looked at his face, “Alright, you look fine, and be home whenever, consider me the cool, way hotter parent.”

Zayn shoved Louis away and waved goodbye to his friends, he headed out of his apartment complex and started walking toward the park, he originally planned on driving, but since Harry changed the location to the park which was only about a block away, why not walk? He reached the park in a matter of minutes and looked around, he spotted Harry sitting on a checkered blanket with a picnic basket next to him, and he couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

He walked over, earning Harry’s attention, and he grinned, “Isn’t it a little late for a picnic?”

Harry smiled and patted the spot next to him, making Zayn sit there. “Didn’t know there was a time frame of when you could have a picnic.”

“There isn’t, normal people just have it earlier, y’know, when the sun’s actually out, and it isn’t cold as fuck.”

Harry laughed, and Zayn couldn’t help but laugh with him, he absolutely loved Harry’s laugh, he reminded himself to Google a shit load of jokes, just to hear Harry’s laugh again. Harry shook his head, a small smile on his face. “I never said I was normal.”

“Is that supposed to intrigue me? Make me more interested in you?”

Harry shook his head, “Nah, just speaking the truth,” he said as he started taking out the food from the basket, it had maybe two or three sandwiches and a few bags of chips, he held two sandwiches up, “Grilled chicken or turkey?”

Zayn grabbed the chicken one, and they both ate in a comfortable silence. After they finished and put the food out of the way, they started talking about their lives, small things like when Zayn met Louis, and how Liam pulled Harry’s pants down in front of his entire 7th grade class. Harry started talking about how he loved music, and how he really wanted to make it as a singer, he moved to Bradford hoping to gain more publicity for the band he was in.

Zayn raised his eyebrow, “And your mum is okay with you going off like that?”

Harry frowned, which in turn made Zayn frown, Harry shook his head, the frown still on his face. “My mum passed away about a year ago, car accident.”

Zayn bit his lip, feeling guilty for even bringing it up, “I—”

Harry grinned, “It’s alright, no need to feel guilty, you didn’t know.”

Zayn nodded, he wanted to say sorry, isn’t that what people usually say in situations like these? He wasn’t sure if Harry even wanted to hear that, but he didn’t want to feel rude about the whole thing, maybe Harry’s judging him right now for not saying sorry.

Harry’s laugh interrupted Zayn’s thoughts, he looked over at Harry, sort of confused, Harry only smiled, “I can tell you’re having an inner battle with yourself about this, don’t worry about it, really. You don’t have to say sorry; you really don’t have to say anything about it.”

Zayn raised his eyebrow, “Am I really that obvious?”

Harry only shrugged, “Maybe, I’m not sure, all I know is it’s easy for me to read you.”

He sighed, maybe he was a little too easy to read, it’s not like he tried to be. In fact, he tried to keep his feelings bottled up inside of him to the best of his ability, but his eyes were a problem, they’d practically give everything away, you’d able to tell his entire life story if you looked into his eyes long enough.

Zayn shook his head, trying not to let his thoughts get the best of him, he was still curious about the cups of coffee, and he thought now was a good a chance as ever. “So… why do you buy two cups of coffee?”

“Wow, talk about a fast change of topics,” Harry said, a small smile plastered on his face. “When I was little, right after my father left us, my mum would always go to the coffee shop and do the same. I asked, and she told me anyone who made the time to sit down and drink that coffee with you, well, they’d just have to be the one.” He sighed, “No one ever sat with her, so it made me think it was incredibly stupid, but after she died, I was lonely, been doing it ever since.”

“That sounds ridiculous; no one’s going to sit down with a complete stranger. Hell, Louis hasn’t even done it and he loves free coffee.”

Harry shrugged, “It kind of stuck with me, and I just can’t help but hope, y’know? Maybe one day someone will make time just for me and sit with me.”

Zayn pouted, “If someone ever does, does that mean you’ll leave me for them?”

“Probably,”

“So what on earth is the point of taking me out on a date?”

Harry shook his head, a smile on his face. “I’m joking, I don’t even care about the coffee anymore, , it’s become a force of habit now. I’m just glad I met you.”

Zayn smiled and looked down, feeling his cheeks heat up, no way in hell was Harry going to see him blush. Since he was too busy talking with Harry, he hadn’t even noticed how cold it’s gotten, a small breeze made him shiver, which caused Harry to take his blazer off and hand it to Zayn.

Zayn only stared at it as if it were a foreign object; Harry chuckled, “Well? You’re cold aren’t you? Take it.”

“If I take it, that’s going to mean I’m the girl in this relationship, and I’m manly as fuck, so no.”

Harry laughed and threw the blazer at him, “Sorry, didn’t mean to damage your ego, Zaynie, maybe next time bring a jacket.”

Zayn shook his head and put it on. What? He was cold, and Harry wasn’t using it.

Harry sighed, “I’d hate to ruin this perfect night, but it’s late, we should be heading back.”

Zayn nodded, he and Harry got up and put everything back in the picnic basket Harry had brought. Harry had offered to walk Zayn home, and Zayn happily agreed. They walked next to each other, their hands brushing each other every now and then, until Harry grew tired of it and just grabbed a hold on Zayn’s hand. Harry’s hand was a little bigger, but that’s what made their hands fit so well together.

They reached Zayn’s flat, and they stood there awkwardly looking at the ground for about 3 minutes before Harry placed a gentle kiss on Zayn’s cheek, he waved goodbye and was soon out of sight.

Zayn was a bit disappointed, he’d rather have those lips on his own, rather than his cheek, but overall, it was a pretty good date.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zayn was working at the coffee shop, while Louis kept pestering to tell him about the date; Liam had the day off so that’s the only reason why Louis even showed up.

Louis groaned, “I’m the one who salvaged your relationship after you stood him up, so why the fuck won’t you tell me?”

Zayn scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Simple, it’s none of your business, all you need to know is that it went well.”

“Did you two kiss?”

Zayn sighed, here come the 20 questions.

Louis leaned against the counter and looked into Zayn’s eyes. “No, you didn’t, you look disappointed.”

“If I give you a cup of coffee for free, will you shut the fuck up?”

“As much as I love coffee, I can’t lie to you, I won’t, not until you tell me every single god damn detail.”

Zayn was about to say something, but the sound of someone coming in distracted him, he looked over at the doorway and saw Harry walking towards him, a small smile on his face.

Zayn grinned, “What can I get you?”

“Two cups of coffee, please.”

Zayn nodded and made the two cups, giving them to Harry and taking the money; he couldn’t help but frown a bit. Now that he knew the reason as to why Harry bought two cups, he was hoping Harry would stop. It made him feel uneasy knowing that someone might possibly sit with him and have the coffee with him, so he did the only thing he thought he could.

Zayn walked into the supply closet, and sure enough there was a sleeping Niall sitting on a chair, he rolled his eyes, “Niall! Wake the fuck up!”

Niall jerked away and fell off the chair. “It wasn’t me, it was the clown, I swear!”

Zayn ignored his comment, it obviously having something to do with what Niall was dreaming about, “Can you take over the cash register for a bit?”

Niall groaned, “Fine, fine, isn’t it a little early for a lunch break?”

“Just do it.” 

He and Niall both left the supply closet, and Zayn took off his apron, placing it aside. He saw Harry in his usual spot, sipping on his coffee. He made his way over to him, and sat across from him, taking the untouched coffee and drinking from it.

Harry could only stare him at him, obviously confused.

 

Zayn only shrugged, “Maybe I could be ‘the one’...”


	7. Fear Of Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Louis denies he's afraid, except, maybe he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, ^.^, I'm on spring break, so I should be able to get all of the chapters I have so far uploaded :). I actually have a ziam fic that's 7 chapters in, but I'm not quite sure if I should upload that on here... I don't know.
> 
> Enjoy :)
> 
> P.S: I really appreciate all the support this fic has gotten, thank you all so much c: x.

Louis was casually sitting in the coffee shop, watching Zayn texting someone by the register, his guess was Harry considering Zayn was smiling like a love sick puppy. He felt his phone vibrate for about the 50th time that day, and he checked it yet again.

**_2:45pm: Leeyum_ **

_why wont u answer? :( pls tlk to me…_

Another text from Liam, Liam had sent him about 200 texts for the past 3 days, and Louis hadn’t replied to any of them.

“Louis,”

He snapped his head up, only to be looking directly in Zayn’s eyes, a questioning look on his face. Zayn took a seat in front of Louis. “Your phone has been going off for quite a while, and you’re not even answering whatever texts you’re getting, everything alright?”

Louis coughed and cleared his throat. “Yeah, of course, it’s just twitter.” He hoped that was enough to convince Zayn that everything was fine, and that he didn’t need to bother Louis about it.

Zayn frowned, “You don’t have a twitter.”

Yeah, Louis was never really good at covering things up.

“Listen, Louis, I have a feeling that these ‘tweets’ are probably texts from Liam.”

Louis scoffed, “Well you better tell your ‘feeling’ to shut the fuck up, because they’re just tweets.”

“Again, you don’t even have a twitter.”

“Well, maybe I made one a couple of days ago, did you ever think of that possibility?” He stood up, already feeling frustrated and upset. “Stay the fuck out of my business, Malik. I can handle shit myself.”

Zayn could only groan in defeat, no one was as stubborn as Louis, absolutely no one. “Alright, alright, you win, Louis, I’ll leave it alone.”

Louis grinned and sat back down, already feeling relief from Zayn dropping the subject. “That sounds more like it; now get me another coffee, yeah? I’m having trouble staying awake in this abandoned shop, fuck; don’t you lads ever have any costumers?”

“Obviously not considering Niall literally sleeps through his shift every day, but I’m not complaining, I can do whatever the fuck I want all day.”

Just as Louis was about to respond, Liam walked into the shop, and Zayn grinned and stood up and took off his apron. “Speaking of doing whatever I want, Li here is gonna take my shift, have fun, Lou boo.”

Louis watched as Zayn walked up to Liam and greeted him, handing over the apron, and quickly walking out the door right after, leaving Louis and Liam alone in the shop. He inwardly groaned, why couldn’t Niall be a good employee and stay awake?

Liam walked over to him while putting on his apron, a frown on his face. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Why, hello to you, too, Liam,”

Liam sighed and sat in front of Louis, taking Zayn’s spot. “Don’t sass me now, Lou, of all times, not now. I’ve sent you over 100 texts, why the fuck are you ignoring me?”

Louis rubbed his face, already feeling a now growing headache coming. “It was a one-time thing, Liam, that ‘incident’ in the closet isn’t supposed to happen between us ever again, haven’t you heard of the term ‘one night stand’? Now leave me the fuck alone.”

“I don’t believe you for one second, Lou, even if I’ve only known you for about a week and a half, I know you’re better than that.” Liam stared at him, feeling his eyes water, and he stayed quiet for a bit to compose himself. “I know there’s a reason you don’t want to be with me, and I wanna know why, can’t you just give me that? Just… please? Tell me…”

“I can’t.” Louis stood up and hastily made his way toward the door, he turned around and made sure to speak loud enough for Liam to hear him. “I just can’t, now do us both a favor and stay out of my life.”

He made his way back toward his flat, locked his door, and sat in his living room, eating ice cream. He forced himself not to cry, there wasn’t a reason to, he stopped crying over boys years ago. They were all the same  **(A/N: Omfg I’m making Louis sound like a teenage girl I’m dying)** , they all treated him the same, so why should he give anyone else a chance?

About 30 minutes later, a knock at his door interrupted his ice cream eating time. He got up, and walked toward his door, leaning against it, already knowing it was Zayn. “I thought I told you to piss off? Did your ‘feeling’ come back, Zaynie?”

“I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, but it sounds kinky; remind me to ask Zayn about that.”

The husky voice completely took Louis by surprise, he got off the door and opened it, revealing none other than Harry, he gulped and moved aside to let him in, closing the door right after.

Harry was the first to speak. “Nice place you’ve got here, kind of dirty, but nice nonetheless.”

“Cut the crap, Styles, why are you in my flat?”

“Talk about Liam, ‘course.”

Louis frowned, “I don’t believe that’s any of your business, now could you please kindly fuck off.”

Harry sat on the couch and sighed. “Listen, Lou, when my best friend calls me for about 3 nights in a row, crying, then it becomes my business.” He composed himself on the couch so he could look directly at Louis. “Now why the fuck are you doing this to Liam?”

He looked down, staring at the floor, feeling guilty that Liam had cried for him 3 nights in a row. “I don’t know, alright? I just don’t want to be with him, simple as that.”

“You’re not getting off that easily, there’s more to this, I know there is.”

“Well what do you want me to say? That I literally don’t trust anyone enough to get into a relationship with? That I feel like every guy out there is set out to hurt me? That I hate feeling like this, but I have no idea how to change it?”

Harry stood up and walked over to him. “I understand that some guys in the past have hurt you, but that doesn’t give you the right to hurt Liam, not when he’s done absolutely nothing to you. Why the fuck would you sleep with him in the first place if you fucking knew nothing would come out of it? Liam isn’t the one for one night stands, if he sleeps with you then you better be damn sure that means he cares about you.” Harry chewed on his lip a bit to help himself calm down. “Liam doesn’t deserve this shit, why can’t you just give him a chance and actually try to be with him? Try to let him make you fall for him?”

 

Louis bit his lip, already feeling some tears fall down his cheeks, and he cursed himself for letting Harry see him cry, for letting Harry see him this vulnerable. “I don’t have to try, Harry, I’ve already fallen for him, and that scares the living shit out of me…”


	8. Serenading & News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Liam sings and Harry has news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, chapter 8 already! I'm updating these really fast, huh? ;P
> 
> But yeah, 4 more chapters until we're all caught up! Then you'll have to wait for me to actually write the chapters, which is a very long process that happens once a week, sorry x.
> 
> Enjoy c:

“Favorite color?”

“That’s such an idiotic question, Malik, what the fuck does my favorite color have to do with anything?”

Harry and Zayn were on another date. It was about their 10th date, and exactly one month after their first date, they had gotten along better than Zayn would’ve expected them to, and they definitely had more in common than expected.

Zayn rolled his eyes, “What if I was planning on buying you a gift? You completely ruined the surprise.”

Harry faked a gasp. “You got me a gift? Oh, you shouldn’t have.”

“I didn’t.”

He groaned, “What the fuck? You got my hopes up for nothing, what was the point of asking me my favorite color?”

Zayn shrugged, “Sorry for trying to make conversation, sheesh, and my pay is shit at the coffee shop, can’t expect much from me, Styles.”

Harry pouted, making sure to stick out his lip a bit farther to make Zayn feel guilty. “It’s still our one month anniversary, you owe me something.”

“What? And you don’t have to get me anything?”

He shook his head and smiled. “Nah, not really.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, “That’s bullshit, but fine.” He leaned over and pecked Harry lightly on the lips, they had kissed before, a lot, actually, but they never had a full on make out scene. “Better now?”

**(A/N: Sorry for those who were expecting some big kiss scene, I needed to pick up the pace here, so I kind of skipped ahead of all that)**

“No, I was hoping for something I could wear, y’know, something that costs money.”

“Sucks, that’s as much as my budget allows me.”

Harry chuckled, “Alright, alright, not gonna lie, it was probably better than anything that would’ve cost a bit of money.”

Zayn grinned, “I figured, my kisses do have a lot of value toward them.”

Harry shook his head, a small smile on his lips. “I really do like you a lot, you know that, right?”

“I get that from a lot of people.” Zayn shrugged his shoulders, a smirk plastered on his face. “What can I say? I’m a likeable guy.”

Harry stared at his food, moving it around and poking at it with his fork. “I’m being serious, Zee, I like you, like a lot a lot. I think I might be falling in love with you, even…”

Zayn nearly choked on the soda he was drinking, wasn’t it a bit soon to be talking about the word ‘love’? Did he like Harry? Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean he was falling in love with him, they had only known each other for a month.

Harry sighed, “Alright, maybe you think it’s a bit too soon to even think about that, but it’s true, I’m falling for you, Zayn, but that’s not the point.” He pushed his plate aside and ran a hand through his hair. “I have to tell you something…”

Zayn frowned, he decided on ignoring the whole ‘falling for you’ thing. “What is it?”

“I’m—”

The loud vibrating sound interrupted Harry; Zayn picked up his phone and saw he had a new message from Louis.

**_7:22 pm: Loueh >.>_ **

_zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayn i ran out of ice cream so i came over ur flat U DONT HAVE ANY EITHER WHERE THE FK ARE U GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW AND GET SOME ICE CREAM ON UR WAY HOME_

He sighed, “It’s Louis, I have to be heading back, he’s at my flat right now doing who knows what, probably having a crisis, though.”

“He can deal with it himself; it’s mainly his fault if this has something to do with Liam.”

“He’s my best friend, Haz, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. I have to be there for him no matter what.”

Harry nodded, “You’re right, you’re right, my apologies, do you mind if I tag along? I’ve got nothing else to do, and I really have to tell you something.”

“I don’t mind, and tell me later, yeah?”

They drove back to Zayn’s place, making sure to get some ice cream on the way there, of course, if they hadn’t, Louis would’ve probably had a fit.

Zayn unlocked his door and walked in only to find Louis curled up in a ball on his couch, wrapped up in his own blankets. “I’ve got some ice cream if you want some.”

Louis groaned in response, “I don’t want it anymore.”

Zayn shook his head and placed the ice cream in the freezer, he lifted Louis’ head up and sat down, placing Louis’ head on his lap and proceeded to gently stroke Louis’ hair. “Somethin’ bothering you?”

“No shit, Zayn, I just like to barge into my best friend’s flat looking for ice cream after finishing 3 tubs of my own for fun. And haven’t you heard? Sulking while wrapped in blankets is the new craze.”

Zayn sighed, “Alright, that was a stupid question, I’ll give you that, do you wanna tell me what’s going on with you? Or do you just want me to continue petting you?”

Louis leaned in to Zayn’s touch. “Just keep petting me.”

He continued stroking Louis’ hair and looked over toward Harry, mouthing an ‘I’m sorry’.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before a soft sound distracted them. It sounded like… pebbles hitting the window? Zayn frowned and looked at Harry, he nodded toward the window and Harry got up to check it out.

As soon as he opened the window he got hit in the face with a small pebble. “Ow, what the fuck?!” He looked around only to find a sheepish looking Liam staring up at him, with a grouchy looking Niall holding a guitar, standing right next to him.

Liam frowned, “Is Louis up there?!”

Harry looked over at Louis and Zayn, Zayn was still stroking his hair and Louis looked like he was starting to fall asleep, he looked back at Liam. “Yeah, but I don’t think now’s such a—”

“Good!” He looked over toward Niall and whispered something, and then Niall started strumming on his guitar.

The music started to flow its way into Zayn’s flat, Louis’ head perked up and he frowned. “What the fuck is that?” He threw off the blankets and ran over to the window, pushing Harry away, and nearly threw up at the sight.

Liam was fucking serenading him.

Liam’s mouth opened, and he began singing,

“ _Give me love like her,_

_'Cause lately I've been waking up alone,_

_Pain splattered teardrops on my shirt,_

_Told you I'd let them go,”_

Louis ran away from the window and went into Zayn’s room, at first Zayn thought he probably locked himself in there to avoid Liam, but then he came out with all of Zayn’s books, both the books he read, and his college books.

Liam was still singing of course,

“ _Give a little time to me or burn this out,_

_We'll play hide and seek to turn this around,_

_All I want is the taste that your lips allow,_

_My, my, my, my, oh give me love,”_

Louis glared at him and screamed, “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” He started throwing  _all_ of Zayn’s books at Niall and Liam. Niall only shrieked and jumped out of the way, landing face first on to the ground, while almost breaking his guitar.

Liam, poor Liam, got hit in the face with one of Zayn’s heavier books and stumbled backwards; he blocked his face and turned around, his back getting hit with several books.

Wait,  _Zayn’s fucking books._

He ran over toward Louis and grabbed his arms, pulling him back. “THOSE ARE WORKS OF LITERATURE, WHAT THE FUCK, LOUIS?”

Louis squirmed in his grasp. “Let me fucking go or so help me god, I will burn your fucking flat down, Malik!”

Zayn let him go immediately and Louis stormed out of his flat. He got into his car and drove away, Liam chased after it for a few seconds before he collapsed to his knees in utter defeat.

He watched as Niall put a hand on Liam’s shoulder and nodded toward Zayn’s books, they both picked all of them up and headed up toward Zayn’s flat.

Zayn opened the door and Niall and Liam rushed in, they placed his books on his coffee table, and Liam collapsed on Zayn’s couch, covering his face, he groaned rather loudly. “That had to be the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever had to experience in my life.”

Niall shrugged, “Probably, I haven’t eaten since 2:30, Liam, where’s my goddamn food?”

Zayn rolled his eyes, “There’s some left over pizza in the fridge, help yourself.”

Niall nodded happily and ran over to Zayn’s kitchen; Harry directed his attention toward Liam and sat next to him. “You tried, Li, that’s all that matters.”

Liam sat up and scoffed, “I spent 2 hours trying to get his attention at his own flat, only to find that he wasn’t even there, and then I came here and got mauled by books, why does trying even matter right now?”

Harry shook his head, “It’s not you, Liam, believe me, Louis is mainly the problem child right now.”

Zayn narrowed his eyes at Harry. “Watch it, Styles, that’s my best friend you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come on, Zee.” He pouted again, hoping to get some agreement with Zayn. “You know he can be a little…  _Louis_  sometimes.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zayn sighed and nodded. “You’re right, babe.”

Liam groaned again and buried his face in his hands… again. “Why the fuck do you guys get to be so happy together? It’s not fair, hell, Zayn’s still with you even after you told him you’re leaving.”

They both froze, Harry looked over at Liam and nearly slapped him, and Zayn looked at both of them, confusion written all over his face. “What are you talking about…?”

Liam’s eyes widened, “Oh, crap… Coming, Niall!” He got up and ran over to the kitchen, nearly tripping on his way there.

Zayn frowned, “What the fuck is he talking about, Haz?”

“I uhh… I’m sort of… going… umm, you know… I’m…”

Zayn glared at Harry, his frown still evident on his face. “Just fucking say it!”

 

“I’m leaving to America with my band…”


	9. Not So Happy Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where everything kind of falls apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, already on chapter 9! Progress is great, loving the feedback I'm getting on this, thank you so much, guys ^.^, so here's chapter 9, which means only 3 more chapters till we're caught up! (I might post chapter 10 as well, I dunno yet).
> 
> Hope you enjoy :) x

“You’re what…?” Zayn whispered, barely able to comprehend what Harry had just told him.

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his curls. “I’m heading to America with my band. I’m leaving, Zayn…”

He looked over at Harry and glared, his surprise state quickly turning into anger. “B-But…  What? Why the hell didn’t you tell me sooner? Why did Liam have to force it out of you?”

“I didn’t know until last week, Zayn. I was planning on telling you earlier today, but you were busy dealing with Louis and his shit problems he can handle himself.”

“Don’t bring him in this! What happens between Louis and me stays between Louis and me; I don’t need your opinion!” Zayn yelled.

For a moment they just stared at each other, the tension between the two obviously apparent. All that could be heard was Liam and Niall whispering to each other in the kitchen, Niall saying ‘the fuck did you do, Liam’ and Liam whispering ‘it wasn’t me’ over and over again.

Zayn broke the silence, “Why are you leaving?”

Harry huffed in frustration and stared at the floor, refusing to look at Zayn. “We’re not getting enough publicity here, the band decided to try America, see how things go there.”

“Did you come up with this idea?”

Harry looked up at Zayn, a look of disbelief on his face. “What? No, Zayn, I didn’t,”

Zayn frowned, “But you agreed…”

“What else was I supposed to do, Zayn? All of them agreed, what was I supposed to say? ‘No, I don’t want to leave my boyfriend’?” Harry asked.

He sat down on the couch opposite of Harry; he bit his lip to keep himself from crying. “S-Something along those lines…”

Harry got up and sat next to Zayn, grabbing a hold of Zayn’s hand and cupping Zayn’s face with his other hand, he turned Zayn’s head to make him look directly at him and kissed him gently on the lips. "I'm leaving in two weeks," Harry whispered causing a tear to escape Zayn's eye, which Harry quickly wiped away. “There was nothing I could do, babe, I’m so sorry,”

Zayn’s temper got the best of him as he pushed Harry away from him and stood up. “So, that’s it? You’re fucking leaving just like that? Can’t you just ditch the shit band and stay?”

He stood up with Zayn and glared at him. “Are you kidding me? Zayn, you know how much my music career means to me.”

Zayn pushed Harry, making him stumble back a bit. “Career? What fucking career? You’ve literally played like, what? 10 gigs? Maybe even 11? That’s not a career, Harry, that’s an idiot stuck on something that’ll never happen, get a real fucking job.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know working at a shitty coffee place was better than that, at least I’m doing what I want and not working a miserable job that barely gives me enough pay for my flat!” Harry screamed, getting more upset by the second.

He shoved Harry towards the door. “Get the fuck out, Harry! I don’t even care, do whatever the fuck you want to do with your life, as long as I’m not a part of it anymore, I’m fine with it,” Zayn spat.

Harry frowned, already close to tears, his anger replaced with sadness. “Y-You don’t mean that…”

“That’s the funny thing, isn’t it? I do mean it, now get the hell out, I never want to see you again.” He opened the door and motioned for Harry to leave.

Harry stared at him for a little longer, a few tears streaming down his face before he nodded and left the apartment, giving a second glance back before disappearing out of sight.

Zayn slammed the door shut and collapsed on his couch, the tears already falling down. He could’ve handled it differently, yeah, and if he did, they’d still be together, and maybe Skype here and there when Harry had to leave. But what was the point? Long distance relationships never work out, and Zayn had a feeling Harry knew this would happen eventually, and if he knew, why would he even get involved with Zayn in the first place?

He even told Zayn he loved him, and for what? Just for their relationship to be torn apart by some stupid band? Harry could’ve fought, maybe he just wasn’t feeling the relationship anymore, and maybe he lied about loving Zayn and just said it so he wouldn’t hurt Zayn’s feelings as much.

The thought caused more tears to stream down Zayn’s face.

He heard a hushed conversation from the kitchen, obviously Niall and Liam deciding on what to do next, considering they probably heard Harry and Zayn shouting at each other.

Zayn sat up and wiped his tears away quickly when he heard footsteps approaching. Liam and Niall stood before him, frowns on their faces.

They exchanged a few glances before Niall decided to take a gentle approach.

Niall kneeled down in front of Zayn and moved a piece of hair away from his face. “Everything alright, Zee?”

He immediately pushed Niall’s hands away. “T-The hell d-do you think…?”

Liam frowned, “Hey, he was just trying to—”

Niall got up and shushed him. “It’s ‘kay, Li, I know pissy Zayn, no getting through to the fucker, let’s just head out, call me if you need anything, Zee.”

Zayn stared at the ground. “Yeah, whatever…”

Liam and Niall left, closing the door gently behind them, and then there was Zayn by himself, sitting and staring out the window.

All alone again.


	10. Grouchy Zayn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with an upset Zayn, and maybe an upset Liam, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 10! This one's kind of a filler, and now we only have 2 more chapters until we're caught up! Yaaay!
> 
> Anywho, hope you guys enjoy ^.^

Zayn stared at the customers in front of him, the couple practically cooing at each other while they decided what they wanted to order, with an almost permanent scowl on his face. “Are you gonna order or what?”

The man sighed happily. “We would, but this little cutie wants a chocolate chip muffin, while I want banana nut.”

The girl giggled. “I told him to just get what he wanted, but he just wants everything for me, don‘t you, babe?”

“Anything for my princess.” He smiled at her, so much love in their eyes, Zayn thought it was disgusting.

So Zayn did what he thought was right, he went over to the muffins, grabbed a chocolate chip one and a banana nut one, came back, and threw them both at the couple. “Here! Take both, just,  _please,_ go the fuck away.”

One of the muffins hit the man in the face. “What the fuck is your problem?” He looked back over to his girlfriend. “Let’s get the hell out of here, this guy’s crazy.”

The woman only nodded, dumbfounded at the fact an employee just threw muffins at them, they both stormed out in haste to get away from Zayn.

“Come back when you’re both fucking single!” Zayn yelled.

Louis stared at him, sipping on his coffee, and having just watched the scene unfold in front of him. “Well, aren’t you just a bundle of joy?”

“I’m going on break!” Zayn yelled back to Liam, who was doing god knows what in the storage closet (probably avoiding Louis). Zayn took off the apron and threw it aside, walking up to an empty booth and sitting down, rolling his eyes when he saw Louis sit in front of him. “I don’t want to hear it, Lou.”

“You’re being ridiculous, you realize that, right?” Louis eyed him warily, not enjoying this new, angry Zayn.

He scoffed, “I’m not, those two were being disgusting in front of me, and I didn’t want to deal with it.”

Louis nodded, “You’re right, I mean the way they just stood there, deciding on what to order like  _normal people_ , so disgusting, I have no idea why you haven’t quit after those two.”

“Sarcasm noted, Louis. I just hate couples, alright? Leave me the hell alone.” Zayn sighed, trying his hardest not think about a certain curly haired guy.

Louis shrugged and stared at Zayn, giving him the  _this is all of your fault_  look. “I doubt it’s the couples, Zee, it’s Harry, and you know it. You have no reason to be upset, he gave you a chance, idiot.”

“Oh, just like you’re upset over Liam even though—” Zayn shut his mouth; he knew he had a point, but it’s something he couldn’t talk about without Louis hating him for life.

“Look,” Louis began, obviously ignoring Zayn’s previous comment. “The way I see it, you have exactly one week before Harry leaves. You can either continue sulking around like you have been for the last week, or you can go to him and beg him to forgive you for being a complete arse, I suggest the latter.”

Zayn sighed and was about to answer when, speaking of the devil, Harry and Niall both walked in. Niall, of course, saw them, smiled and walked over to them, Harry cautiously following, not knowing what else to do.

Niall smiled. “Hey, Lou,” he nodded at Zayn. “Grouchy Zayn,”

Zayn stared at Niall, forcing himself not to look at Harry. “Grouchy Zayn? Is this going to be a thing now?”

“Yep,” Niall said while nodding his head. “As long as you’re grouchy, you’re going to be grouchy Zayn.”

Harry was faced the other way, trying to avoid them, but he couldn’t help himself. “You wouldn’t be grouchy if you weren’t so stupid…” Harry mumbled.

Zayn couldn’t help himself either, he glared at Harry’s back. “What was that, Styles?”

He turned around to face Zayn, a frown on his face. “So now we’re calling each other by our last names?”

Louis pinched Niall’s arm. “What the hell have you done?”

“Ow!” Niall slapped Louis’ hand away. “It wasn’t on purpose, maybe they’ll just—”

“Yeah, well, I’m too pissed at you to even mumble your name,” Zayn said.

Harry shook his head. “We wouldn’t even have problems if you weren’t so… well,  _you.”_

Zayn laughed, the laugh filled with nothing but spite. “Oh, so now my whole existence is the problem? Sorry we can’t all be perfect like you, if you consider leaving your significant other to another country for your shit band perfect.”

“It’s my goddamn dream, Zayn! Why do you insist on taking that away from me for your own selfish reasons?!” Harry yelled.

Zayn only shook his head, on the verge of tears; he refused to cry in front of Harry, he actually always refused to cry in front of anyone. He got up and shoved past Harry. “I’m not dealing with this shit again, leave me alone.” He stormed out of the coffee shop without a second glance.

The three of them just stared at each other, an awkward silence filling the room. They weren’t sure what to do, Harry was already crying again, Louis and Niall were pinching each other (Louis started it), but they were all upset, already figuring out that their group of friends would have to disperse, knowing Zayn would force Niall and Louis to not talk to Harry anymore.

The bell above the door ringing caught their attention, an upset, red-eyed Zayn walked in again (he obviously wiped his tears while he was outside). Harry looked at him expectantly, but Zayn only shook his head. “I work here, and I’m pretty sure ‘storming out angrily’ will get me fired, so, Styles, please leave the premises.”

Harry nodded and wiped his eyes with his hand before leaving the shop.

Zayn sighed in relief and went back to the cash register, putting on his apron again, not even caring that Liam never left the closet and took over for him, and speaking of Liam…

Liam came out almost angrily, eyes red, and cheeks all blotchy from crying. He stomped up to Louis and glared at him. “I’m tired of this, tired of ignoring my feelings for you, tired of you treating me like I’m nothing but scum… Why are you hurting me…?”

Awkward.


	11. Lilo?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Louis finally gets his shit together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11, woo! Sorry for the lack of Zarry in this chapter, but I haven't written much about Lilo, so now Lilo! Only one more chapter till we're all caught up x, I go back to school tomorrow *cries* but at least I passed my driver's test, yush!
> 
> Enjoy x

Louis didn’t know what to say, he could only stare at Liam in pure disbelief, just a minute ago they were talking about Zayn and his problems with Harry, and now Louis’ forced to discuss with Liam about their problems? He was literally at a loss for words.

Niall took the time to awkwardly stand next to Zayn behind the counter, even if he wasn’t supposed to be working. The two were trying their hardest not to stare at the scene before them, but failing utterly and giving up halfway, deciding on hardcore staring at Liam and Louis.

Liam didn’t even pay attention to the two imbeciles Louis called his best friends; he continued to stare intently at Louis, tears threatening to fall again. “Are you going to answer me or not?”

Louis opened his mouth, preparing to speak, but his voice seemed to fail him when he needed it most, he stared at Liam, mouth open and quiet, looking like an idiot.

“Dang it, Lou, say somethin’— OW!” Niall yelped, earning Louis’ attention, Niall was rubbing his side and glaring at Zayn, while Zayn mouthed something along the lines of ‘leave his beans’…? Louis sucked at the whole lip reading thing.

**(A/N: Zayn actually said 'Leave them be' just letting you peeps know x.)**

He looked back at Liam who only shook his head and turned around, walked behind the counter and back inside the storage room, where no one could bother him. Louis let out a sigh and slammed his head on the table, which only resulted in him raising his head and rubbing his forehead, muttering a few curses.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 decided to sit in the booth with Louis – across from him, of course, how else would you interrogate someone – and stared at him, Niall being the first to speak, “Slammin’ yer head on the table isn’t the  _stupidest_ thing you’ve done, letting Liam walk away takes the cake.”

Louis was about to respond until someone kicked his leg, he glared at the two. “Ow! Fuckers, what the hell did I do?”

Zayn’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, sorry, that was for Nialler.” Zayn’s face scrunched in pain and he yelped when he felt someone kick his leg as well. “What the fuck?”

Niall raised his hand guiltily, “Only did it ‘cause you tried t’ intentionally do it t' me, so,” Niall squealed as he felt someone kick his leg, he looked up to be met with Zayn glaring at him. “Okay, okay, fair ‘nough, we done now?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zayn said, rolling his eyes and nodding in agreement. “So, Louis, are we going to discuss you and Liam’s dying relationship?”

“You know I don’t like talking about shit like that, drop it, guys.” Louis sighed and shook his head, just wanting to get up, leave, and curl up in his bed and cry because why not? He felt like crap.

Zayn frowned, “We’re your best friends, dammit, I’ve let you hug me and cry on my shoulder without me saying anything hundreds of times, do you know how much it hurt knowing I couldn’t say anything to at least help you feel slightly better? I felt like the crappiest friend alive. Let me be a fucking friend, Louis, just for once,  _please_.”

He avoided their gaze on him, he never knew Zayn felt like that, Zayn was everything but a shitty friend, he’s probably the best friend he will ever have besides Niall, he nodded and gave in. “Fine, fine, please give me your opinions, I’m dying to know what you think about my shitty relationships.”

“Sarcasm noted…” Niall said.

“You know what I think?” Zayn began, “You need to suck it up—”

Louis scoffed, “This is why I don’t care about your stupid opinions.”

Zayn held his hands up in defense, “Let me finish, dammit.” Zayn coughed and continued. “Anyway, before someone rudely interrupted me,” he ignored Niall laughing from Louis muttering a ‘twat’ and focused on Louis, “Stop being afraid of getting in relationships, not everyone is going to be like Brad—”

“You mean Brandon?” Louis asked.

“Or Danny –”

“Oh, I think he’s talkin’ bout Derek,” Niall said, Louis nodding in agreement.

Zayn face-palmed and rolled his eyes. “That’s not the fucking point, the point is not everyone is the going to be like your past asshole ‘boyfriends’, alright? Liam is a sweet, genuine guy, give him a chance, Louis. Everyone is different, so stop trying to compare every guy you like with the ones who happened to be crappy in their own special way.”

Niall was rubbing his chin in thought. “Derek was the one with the glasses and the goatee, right?”

“Yeah, that goatee was weird as fuck, don’t know what I was thinking,” Louis nodded, copying Niall's movements and rubbing his chin as well.

“Oh, for fucks sake,” Zayn groaned in annoyance.

Louis sighed, “Kidding, god, Zayn, lighten the fuck up, Harry’s got you all serious and un-fun, it’s fucking my day up.”

**(A/N: I doubt un-fun is a word but Louis and I don’t care so shoo jk keep reading don’t shoo ily)**

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard enough of that, just think about what I said, alright?” Zayn said, getting up and getting ready to head back to work.

Louis smiled, genuinely because here was Zayn again, being an amazing friend, and he didn’t want Zayn to believe otherwise. “Yeah, thanks, Zee.”

Zayn smiled in return and ruffled Louis’ hair, which earned his hand to get smacked away, but he expected that. “Anytime, Louis.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now here was Louis, 9 hours later, at exactly 12:24 A.M, laying down on Zayn’s couch, and listening to Zayn and Niall curse each other out – well more Zayn cursing at Niall, while Niall screams random shit at Zayn about the oven not being warm enough — as they attempt to make pizza on their own, insisting that they both had culinary experience, and even though Louis was 100% sure they didn’t, he decided to go along with it considering he had his own problems to deal with.

He thought about what Zayn said, about everyone being different, he knew it was true, Zayn was like a goddamn fortune cookie, his advice was always fucking true. But he still couldn’t help that feeling of fear in his stomach, fear of rejection, of embarrassment from walking in on his significant other screwing some new guy he found, and only looking back and smirking at Louis as he continued his actions without a second thought.

Louis shook his head, he wasn’t going to let his past consume him, his future was his own to make it, and if he wanted Liam in it then so be it. He got up and grabbed his coat and keys, he shouted a ‘going to see Liam’ to Niall and Zayn, and left, only being able to see Niall and Zayn cheer and hug each other, their previous argument forgotten, and ignoring the black smoke emitting from the oven that Louis would originally worry about had Liam not taken over his mind.

He opened his phone and read Liam’s text that contained Liam’s address – something Liam sent him a while ago, but Louis obviously ignored it – and memorized it as he drove off. He arrived at the apartment and walked up the small steps, clicking the room number, Liam quickly buzzed him in, probably oblivious and as to who it really was and assuming it was either Zayn, Niall, or Harry checking up on him at this ungodly hour.

So Louis made the trek up the stairs to the room number and took a deep breath before knocking on the door. The door opened and Liam emerged in all his adorableness from wiping the sleep out of his eyes and yawning a bit, stopping in his tracks and widening his eyes at the sight of Louis. “Louis? What—”

“I’m sorry,” Louis started, “I’m an idiot, a twat, an imbecile, call me what you will, that’s probably what I am. I’m sorry for being afraid and for not giving you a chance. I’m sorry for not trusting you and not giving you the chance to let me trust you. I’m sorry for making you cry and for hurting you because, dammit, I never wanted to fucking do that, ever. I’m a screwed up person, and I have trust issues that I so badly need to resolve, and also I think I might be falling for you, bye.” Louis rushed out the words and turned to leave until a hand grabbed his arm and spun him around.

Liam pulled him in and kissed him, right then and there. Louis sighed in relief as he felt Liam’s warm lips against his, everything about his past, and the thought of Liam hurting him quickly leaving his mind and only focusing on this moment. He forgot how good it felt, kissing Liam, that warm, fuzzy feeling he got as they were making out in the closet coming back, only this time he wasn’t pushing it away – no, he refused to – but rather embracing it.

They continued kissing until Liam pulled him inside, his lips still on Louis’, and shut the door, wanting to make a bit of their own midnight memories.

**(A/N: ^ That was so corny and un-clever it's not even funny, I'm sorry)**


	12. Crappy Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Harry has to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't upload this chapter sooner, stuff has been happening this week and I've finally gotten a break so now I'm uploading it, but we're all caught up now, so now you're gonna have to wait for me to write the chapter, which I usually do during the weekend, so look out for updates over the weekends :D x
> 
> Enjoy ^.^

Louis, Liam, and Niall all sat on Harry’s bed as they watched him pack his bags - well, not _bags_ , more like bag, surprisingly enough, Harry barely had any clothes. The coffee shop was closed due to it being Sunday, and from past experiences, they never had any customers on Sunday’s anyway, so their boss decided to just make it closed that day.

They all watched with frown’s on their faces, – meanwhile Zayn was nowhere in sight – and even though Harry’s had his issues with Zayn, they all still deeply cared for the curly-headed lad.

Harry sighed and stopped packing to turn around and face his friends, who were emitting nothing but sadness. “Can you guys, like, stop being so sad or something?”

“UGH,” Louis shouted as he dramatically flung himself back on the bed so that he was now lying down, which made him take up most of the bed, much to Liam and Niall’s dismay. “We can’t help it, Haz, we’re losing one of the five!”

“Yeh,” Niall said, nodding in agreement as he pushed Louis’ legs off of him. “Don’t know what he means ‘bout ‘the five’, but yeh, pretty much.”

Louis glared at Niall as he turned himself around and laid his head on Liam’s lap, Liam instantly running his fingers through Louis’ hair.

Liam pouted, even though he wanted to smile from how much he loved touching Louis’s soft hair. “You’re my best mate, Harry, I don’t want you to go…”

“Guys…” Harry began, already feeling his conscience scold him for making his friends feel so disheartened. “I have to, my band needs me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Liam said, frowning and getting up as Niall and Louis got up as well. “We know…”

They all engulfed each other into one big group hug, Louis had already begun crying, being the most sensitive one in the group.

Harry laughed as he felt Louis’s tears on his shoulder. “You’ll be okay, you’ve got Liam here,” Harry said, as they all pulled away from each other.

Louis wiped his tears and glared at Harry, pointing an accusing finger at him. “You _better_ text me, Haz, or so help me I’ll—”

“Crap,” Harry said, interrupting Louis’s threat. “I dropped my phone in the loo yesterday, it’s completely destroyed.”

Louis stared at him, his face scrunched up in confusion. “What the actual _fuck_ , Harry?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Liam said, giving a scolding look toward Louis. “He knows my number, once he gets a new phone, he’ll call us, right?” Liam asked, looking at Harry for confirmation.

Harry nodded his head quickly, he wouldn’t forget about his friends, he promised himself that, nor would he ever forget about a certain raven-haired boy that seemed to never leave his mind.

Liam smiled at his best friend that was now leaving him to pursue his own dreams, he was happy for him, yeah, but he couldn’t help but feel a void in his heart knowing he wouldn’t have Harry there for him anymore – physically – if he and Louis were to ever get into a fight, and knowing Louis, that’d be quite often.

“Alright, lads, I’ve gotta go,” Harry said, frowning, knowing this would be the last time he’d see his friends for a while.

They said their goodbyes, Louis crying halfway through his, and stood outside of Harry’s flat, watching Harry and his friend drive away until the car was completely out of sight, as was Harry.

Louis wiped his eyes, anger settling inside of him, he quickly dialed a number and placed his phone by his ear as he heard it ringing.

“Who ya calling, babe?” Liam asked.

Louis only raised his finger to Liam, as if to say ‘give me one moment’, and Liam nodded, understanding it was best to wait other than bombard Louis with questions.

“Hello…?” A deep, rough voice answered on the other line.

He rolled his eyes guessing Zayn had just woken up by the sound of his voice. “Lazy, twat, Harry just left and you’re busy sleeping.”

Louis heard a bunch of ruffling noise, probably Zayn sitting up in his bed, and then heard Zayn speak. “And please explain to me why I should care.”

“Cause you love him, you idiot!” Louis shouted, practically feeling Zayn flinch at the sudden rise in his voice. “He’s leaving, and your ego’s too huge for you to even say a simple goodbye. Get over it, Zayn, we understand he’s leaving, and we’re completely fine with that, why can’t you be?”

“Louis, I’d rather not—”

“No,” Louis said, interrupting Zayn. “We’re talking about this _now_ , whether you want to or not.”

“You know,” Zayn started, annoyance in his voice. “I can just, oh, I don’t know, hang up the phone?”

Louis scoffed, already having enough of Zayn and his actions. “Then go ahead, hang up, see if I talk to you ever again.

He heard silence, some shuffling here and there, and then a sigh in defeat. “Fine,” Zayn said. “I’m listening.”

“Okay,” Louis sighed. “Go after him, make things right between you two, hell, be friends, even, just don’t leave things like this, you know he loves you, and even if you haven’t figured it out quite yet, deep down inside you know you love him, too.”

“What’s done is done, Louis, what don’t you understand—”

“Listen, Zayn, I don’t give a rat’s ass what’s been done, all I know is it can be _undone_ , and Harry’s leaving heartbroken because the love of his life refuses to talk to him, so get your head out of your arse and go fucking _talk_ to him, I’m done here, goodbye.” Louis clicked ‘end call’ before he could hear Zayn retort, he was seething by now, until Liam came over to him and kissed him.

He felt himself relax, what would he do without Liam?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zayn sat on the side of his bed, his elbows on his knees, and his phone in his hand. Louis had only just yelled at him to get his shit together – if he were to give a brief summary. He felt himself squirm uncomfortably when Louis told him that he might, in fact, love Harry. Even thinking about it now made him feel uncomfortable. Did he like Harry’s eyes? Yeah. Did he like Harry’s smile? Yeah. Did he like the way Harry cared about practically anything, remembering when Harry had stopped by a park and made a small funeral for a dead squirrel that he saw on the side of the road? Yeah, but did he love Harry?

And then it came to him, little by little, then all at once.

He got up and threw on his shirt and shoes, quickly grabbing his car keys and heading out of the door. He started up his car and dialed the familiar number and waited, frowning when it instantly went to Harry’s voicemail.

Zayn waited for the beep and began driving until he started talking. “ _Hey, it’s Zayn, call me back, yeah?”_

He drove for a bit until he completely realized he didn’t know where he was going.

**_5:28 pm To: Loueh -.-_ **

_airport?_

Almost instantly, his phone went off making him hear his familiar text tune as he checked his phone.

**_5:28 pm From: Loueh -.-_ **

_:D heathrow_

He nodded mostly to himself and turned his car around completely, causing a few people to honk at him and even curse at him, and began driving to the airport Louis mentioned. He felt himself grow uneasy as he drove, he wondered if Harry had already left or not, so he re-dialed Harry’s number and left another voice message after he heard Harry’s phone go straight to voicemail.

“ _Hey… I just, I just want to say I’m sorry, okay? I’m driving over to the airport to say… Crap, I don’t even know what I’m gonna say to you, but whatever, if I don’t make it in time, I just want you to know I love you, and I was such a twat, call me back, yeah?”_

He hung up and continued his drive toward the airport, knowing full well he was going over the speed limit. He had to make it in time, or else everything would be ruined, probably.

Thirty minutes into driving and he now started getting paranoid, why wasn’t Harry calling him back? Had he already boarded the plane? This only made him drive faster as he pulled out his phone to ring Harry again, but it went straight to voicemail.

He sighed, “ _Harry, please tell me you haven’t left yet, I’m really panicking over here. I love you, just call me back, yeah?”_ He hung up and continued driving, exceeding the speed limit.

After another thirty minutes, he made it to the airport, parking almost immediately and making his way inside. He looked around, watching a bunch of people walk around, suitcases in hand, but yet there was no sight of Harry anywhere. Zayn re-dialed Harry’s number as he started walking around, looking for Harry.

 _“Hey, me again, I’m here, I think I made it in time, I dunno, just please answer my—”_ He stopped mid-sentence as he saw the huge television showing all the flights that were either now boarding, or already leaving. His heart shattered as he read Harry’s flight number.

_Flight 299             America               Leaving: 4:50 pm_

Harry had already left.


	13. Not Good Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Zayn doesn't feel like he's good enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been M.I.A a bit, I've been dealing with personal issues that rendered me internet-less, sorry again. I also forgot the password to this account, but now I've remembered it so it's all good, I changed it, though, but yeah, you didn't really need to know that, sorry again, okay, hope you enjoy x.

“Mum, why is that strange man lying on the floor like that?” A young child, not much older than 10, asked her mother as she watched a man with raven colored hair lying on the floor, arms and legs spread wide open.

“I don’t know, sweetheart, just ignore him,” the mother replied as she took her child’s arm and dragged her away from the man as if he held some infectious disease.

Zayn had been lying in the middle of the airport for about an hour now; he’s surprised security hasn’t come to kick him out yet. The moment he read those dreaded words that meant Harry was long gone and heading for a completely different country was the moment Zayn gave up on everything and collapsed on the cold, hard airport floor, not caring about who stared or who whispered about him, it was all meaningless now. His life was  _meaningless._

A loud, obnoxious ringtone interrupted his phase of giving up on everything. He wondered why he made that terrible sound his ringtone before he realized  _Harry had picked it_  which only made him hurt more.

He hastily took out his phone and answered it, not bothering to see the caller ID. “ _What?”_  he answered, his voice filled with spite.

“Gee, hi, Zayn, you’re so kind to your best friend, I wonder what I did to deserve to have someone like you in my life,” Louis responded with the only intention of being sarcastic.

Zayn groaned, he really didn’t want to deal with Louis’ shit, least now of all times. “Are you quite finished yet? Can I go back to self-loathing and hatred toward every single one of this wretched people at this stupid airport?”

“What are you even going on about? I was just wondering where you were, I know reuniting with your boyfriend can be emotional, but  _Christ_  it shouldn’t take two hours.” He could hear Liam in the background telling Louis to ‘get back to bed’ which only made him want to gag; couples weren’t exactly what Zayn wanted to think about.

He stared at the ceiling for a little longer, Louis must’ve guessed he was making out with Harry, if Harry hadn’t have left already. He took a deep breath and held in the tears that were now starting to form in his eyes. “I didn’t make it, Lou…”

“What do you—”

“I didn’t _make it_ , Lou.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah,” Zayn said with a defeating sigh. Silence ensued as soon as what Zayn said kicked in, he  _didn’t make it._  He only had one opportunity to make things right and he failed, he was late in realizing what a jack ass he had been, and that caused Harry to slip away from him.

He rubbed at his eyes, almost forcing the tears to go back down, or to completely disappear. “I… I tried calling h-him, Lou, but he won’t answer. I don’t think he… He d-doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

Louis whimpered on the other end, no doubt fighting off tears himself even though Zayn was the one who lost his one chance at happiness. “Oh, Zayn… That’s not true! Harry kind of… Well, he dropped his phone in a toilet, so he’s sort of phoneless right now.”

“That would have been vital information a few hours ago, y’know? Now I feel like an idiot, leaving messages to someone who doesn’t even have a phone,” Zayn grumbled, he was already upset, and now he was starting to feel the effects of lying on a hard ground, his back had begun to ache.

“Wouldn’t have made much of a difference, though, would it?” Louis said, sympathy and pity radiating off of his voice. He could almost feel Louis’s fingers twitching, since he probably wanted to comb them through Zayn’s hair so that Zayn could relax and empty his mind for a bit.

He could finally see security approaching through the corner of his eye, he hadn’t made any type of disturbance, but lying peacefully on the floor is seen as an act against the airport or something. He got up in put his arms up in defeat before making his way out of the airport.

“Zayn? Can you come home now?” Louis asked, his voice was soft and quiet, like he thought his usual loud, strong voice would break Zayn.

“Y-Yeah, I’m coming h-home now…” He hung up on Louis, his voice was starting to break, but he wouldn’t cry, this wasn’t the end, not yet.

The drive home was long and painful; he had to pull over twice since he was having trouble concentrating which nearly made him crash four times. He pulled up to his own flat and went inside, silently thanking Louis for being there, he knew Zayn wouldn’t want to be alone now, of all times.

He crawled onto the couch with Louis and laid his head on Louis’ lap and he thought he heard a sigh of relief escape Louis’ mouth as soon as he felt Louis’ fingers combing through his hair.

“Why don’t you just go to America? We’ll book you a flight and everything,” Louis whispered, he almost felt like they were sharing some huge secret, but again, Louis was only doing it to avoid making Zayn worse.

“And with what money, exactly? Even if we all chip in, I’d only be a burden to Harry, anyway, he doesn’t want me in his life right now, he just wants to be some huge pop…” He couldn’t finish, he choked on the last word as the tears finally forced themselves out. He was right, Harry would much rather focus on becoming a pop sensation than spend his time with Zayn, Zayn was nothing compared to fame and fortune.

And dammit, it hurt to not be good enough.

Louis continued to comb his hair with one hand and wiped away his tears with the other. “Shh, it’s alright, Zaynie, it’s okay. He’ll come back soon, he’ll get a phone soon, I’m sure he will.”

And what if he never came back? What if he became famous and forgot all about Zayn? What if had already bumped into some cute, American boy and they were already starting to like each other? What if he realized Zayn was never enough?

Maybe it was the end.


	14. He Who Shall Not Be Named

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where it's a year later from Zayn not being able to say goodbye to Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late and I'm sorry, enjoy.

**_*1 year later*_ **

The air in London was relatively nice, a cool breeze flowing by whenever the scorching sun became a little too much. It was nearing the end of May, and the coffee shop was fairly busy, Louis wasn’t making it any better with his constant nagging of wanting Liam to serve him, even though Liam would be busy with 3 other customers.

The morning rolled by, and soon the shop was empty considering everyone thought buying coffee during the afternoon was morally wrong. So Liam and Zayn took the time to sit with Louis in a booth while Niall cleaned up a bit, unwillingly of course.  Zayn always threatened to expose him for who he really was if he didn’t, which was a muffin stealer, and then Niall had no choice in the matter.

“I love you so much,” Louis stated as he stared into the eyes of his ‘one and only’ (Zayn really had to listen to a speech every night about how Liam was the only one for Louis).

Liam smiled and kissed Louis gently on the lips before pulling away and gently caressing his face. “I love you more, babe.”

“You know what I miss?” Zayn asked as he played with the label on his coffee cup, anything to avoid looking at Liam and Louis’s love fest.

Louis rolled his eyes, already expecting a smart remark from Zayn. “What, Zayn? What do you miss?”

“When you avoided Liam at all costs which resulted in Liam hating you and the two of you eventually not speaking to each other,” Zayn said as he wiped an invisible tear from his eye. “Those were such good times.”

“Those were also the times when you were with he-who-shall-not-be-named if I remember correctly, so I suggest you shut that pretty, little mouth of yours before I bring up some unwanted memories.” Louis was now squeezing his coffee cup, causing the coffee to pour out all over the table.

Zayn sighed and ran a hand through his hair, luckily they had assistance. “Nialler, come over here!”

An out of breath, red-faced Niall emerged out from the back and walked toward their booth, narrowing his eyes at the coffee spill. “I just cleaned this table, dammit, Loueh.”

Louis’s mouth dropped open as he put his hand over his heart, feigning hurt. “Why do you think it was poor, innocent me?”

“It’s _always_ you, Loueh,” Niall stated as he took out a wash cloth and began to clean the spill.

Liam raised his eyebrow as he examined Niall’s worn out features. “What has got you so tired?”

He finished cleaning the spill and shoved the wash cloth in his apron pocket before looking over at Liam and glaring at him. “Oh, nothing, just re-stocking items and moving a shit-ton of boxes with no help from the two people who work here.”

“Sounds strenuous, wouldn’t wanna bother you, you can be on your way now, get back to those boxes,” Zayn retorted as he winked at him and patted him gently on his shoulder.

Niall huffed and walked away, not forgetting to present Zayn with the middle finger, which quickly turned into a thumbs up when Zayn offered he’d take him out to eat after work.

“Anyway, don’t even think about it, hunny bun, he-who-shall-not-be-named shouldn’t ever be mentioned. The asshole left us, decided he was probably too good for us when he made it big in America and didn’t need us to hold him back,” Liam said, already seething as he thought about his used-to-be best friend. “No texts, phone calls, emails, absolutely nothing…”

“You know, he might have his own reasons for doing so, don’t you think it’s a bit ridiculous to compare him to a fictional character that had no nose?” Louis inquired as he sighed and played with the napkin holder.

“Well, at least he kept in touch with Harry Potter—”

“Can we talk about something else, please?” Zayn interrupted Liam, the memories were starting to play in his mind and he began to feel the all too familiar feeling of heartbreak.

Silence ensued as the others looked around, already thinking about their old friend, no doubt, Louis interrupted as he mumbled, “You kind of already mentioned his name, when you said Harry Po—”

“ _Louis._ ”

Louis rolled his eyes and glared at Liam. “What? I’m just saying, you kinda ruined it.”

A loud crash captured their attention, Zayn stood up and motioned for Liam to stay with Louis and then proceeded to run towards the back where Niall was.

He found Niall on the floor with a bunch of boxes surrounding him, who seemed to be holding his finger in pain. Zayn raised his eyebrow questioningly. “Niall?”

“This is it, Zee,” Niall breathed out, whispering like this was some kind of movie scene. “This is where it ends; don’t miss me too much, yeah? Feed my fish while I’m gone, let little Johnny live, let him live!”

“Niall…”

“Tell me mum I love her, and that her cooking was always number 1.”

“ _Niall._ ”

“And tell Liam I’ve always loved him like a brother even though his feet always smell like cheese.”

“Why are you smelling his… Nevermind, Niall just—”

“Also, tell Louis he’s a douchebag and even though I’m dead he still owes me a barbeque dinner.”

Zayn sighed and grabbed Niall’s finger and rolled his eyes when he heard Niall cry out in pain, there was only a small cut across the top part of his finger, a small paper cut.

“And, Zee, wonderful, sarcastic, and annoying, Zee, I want you to know that I’ve always been jealous of your stuffed animal, Ron, because you treat him better than you treat me.”

“For fucks sake, Niall, it’s just a paper cut!” Zayn yelled, he grabbed a band aid from their first aid kit and wrapped it around Niall’s finger. “There, are you done being over dramatic now?”

Niall sprang up and hugged Zayn tightly; he pulled away and kissed him harshly on the cheek. “I’m cured! Thank you, doctor, my wife and kids will be so glad to see me! How can I ever repay you?”

“You can stop being a little shit for starters,” Zayn stated and he wiped away the slobber that Niall decided to leave on his cheek.

“Don’t hate me ‘cause you ain’t me,” Niall mumbled as he continued to gather the boxes and correctly stock them.

Zayn was about to reply until he heard the familiar bell chime signifying they had a customer, he hurriedly grabbed his apron and rushed out the door. “Hi, what can I get ya?” he asked as he reached the cash register.

His jaw dropped and his eyes widen when he stared into the same green-eyes that would continuously haunt his dreams and the same curly, brown hair that went right along with them.

“Can I have two cups of coffee, please?”


	15. Heartbreak (again)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Harry, Zayn, Liam, and Louis all have a chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, didn't really like how this turned out, enjoy x.

It didn’t take long for Zayn to snap out of his trance-like state and rush over toward the door, opening it wide for Harry. “You can get the fuck out.”

Harry bit his lip and looked around; there wasn’t anyone in the coffee shop, just an infuriated looking Liam and an apologetic looking Louis. He looked back over toward Zayn and frowned. “C’mon, don’t be like that, just let me talk to you.”

“I’m not gonna let you do shit, I don’t want anything to do with you, so get the fuck out,” Zayn spat, he felt like he could cry, but no, he wasn’t worth his tears anymore, he had cried enough.

“You heard him,” Liam said, his voice just as thick with utter disappointment and fury. Harry looked over and found Liam glaring at him, arms crossed over his chest almost threateningly.

“Liam, I—”

“Fuck off,  _Harold,_  it’s been a whole fucking year. You think you can completely ignore us and avoid us at all costs for a year, and come back thinking everything will be alright with a small talk? You really must not know me at all,” Liam interrupted Harry, he was practically seething at this point, he’d known Harry his whole life, and he thought Harry would always be there for him and vice versa, but yet…

Louis pinched Liam’s arm and stared at him until Liam sat back down, rubbing his arm. He cleared his throat before speaking, “Okay, both of you calm the fuck down. Harry should at least get a chance to explain, yeah?”

Zayn groaned and rubbed his face, hoping Harry would only be a figment of his imagination. “I don’t want him—”

“Don’t test me, Zee, let him explain,” Louis stated as he raised his eyebrow, almost begging Zayn to go against him.

It took a while before Zayn gave up and walked back toward the cash register and looked at Harry with pure hatred, waiting for Harry’s explanation.

“Thank you, Lou,” Harry began, smiling at Louis until he looked at him and realized maybe Louis hadn’t forgiven him yet either since he was looking Harry directly in the eyes while repeatedly stabbing his empty coffee cup with a pencil. He sighed and looked back at Zayn, noticing how Zayn hadn’t changed all that much, except let his beard grow out a bit, but other than that, Zayn was as beautiful as ever. “Anyway, the first weeks in America were amazing—”

Zayn scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I’m not here to hear about your adventures in America, fucking Christ.”

“Just listen to me, alright?” Harry put his hand on top of Zayn’s and could feel his heart break a little as he felt Zayn flinch and pull away as soon as their hands touched. “I was so caught up in exploring and getting songs done that I completely forgot about calling you guys. And, Zayn, this was when I thought you hated me, I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me…”

Zayn only avoided looking at Harry and kept his arms crossed against his chest, almost like he was trying to keep himself away from Harry.

“Well, what about me?” Liam’s voice cracked and Harry felt like a certified asshole.

“You were just starting your relationship with Louis, I didn’t want to ruin anything, Li, you’re my best friend, I’d never forget about you…”

“So, why didn’t you ever try to come in contact with us then? Giving Liam and me a little time, I understand, but a whole year?” Louis questioned, it didn’t make sense.

“Yeah, I’m getting there. So, it took me a while to get a new phone, but then I did, and the voicemails transferred... And I-I heard them, Z-Zayn, and I…” Harry trailed off, his voice giving up on him, tears began to prick at his eyes and he had to take a moment to push them back down. “I wanted to run back here, but they wouldn’t let me, and I wanted to call you so badly, I just wanted to hear your voice, but they told me I couldn’t, they said you guys were bad for me and the band.”

Liam got up and walked closer to Harry, grabbing a gentle hold of his arm. “Wait, who’s ‘they’? No one’s threatening you, right?”

Harry smiled at the small gesture, Liam would be his best friend no matter what, that’s something Harry realized a long time ago, Zayn was a different story. “No, well… It’s the label who signed us, we have to do what they say, or else we’re out. I really wanted to talk to you guys, all of you, but they wouldn’t let me. They wanted me to be friends with ‘other famous people’, they thought you guys would only drag us down, I couldn’t do anything…”

“Oh, Haz…” Liam wrapped his arms around Harry and hugged him tight. “It’s alright, I’m sorry I was such a twat to you.”

The hug felt all the more relieving as a few tears escaped Harry’s eyes; he returned the embrace, a small smile formed on his face. “S’okay, Li, I’d react the same if the roles were switched.”

Liam pulled away from the hug and smiled gently at Harry before making his way back toward Louis, sitting down, and wrapping his arm around the smaller boy.

Harry turned back to Zayn and all the hope he had was crushed at the sight of the hazel-eyed boy not smiling excitedly at him like he thought he would, but still having the same scowl on his face. “So…”

“So, what?”

“Do you forgive me?”

“I guess so, you have your reasons…”

Harry’s face immediately lit up, he could feel his heart beat rise at the thought of Zayn actually being his again. He reached forward to grab Zayn’s hand again, but Zayn only backed away from him, he immediately went from happy to confused. “I thought you—”

“Yeah, I forgave you, that doesn’t mean I want anything to do with you again, forgiving you is as far as I’ll go, but other than that, I still want nothing to do with you.”

The tears came too quickly, Harry hurriedly tried to wipe them away, but they were coming too fast, he had eventually gave up and let them fall freely, his heart broke all over again. “Z-Zayn, babe… I love you s-so much, please—”

“No!” Zayn yelled, feeling his own tears start to fall again, this was the last time, he had promised himself that. “You have NO right to say that to me, dammit! You picked your fucking band over me AGAIN! I’m tired of being second place, Harry, I don’t want to deal with you or your shit anymore!”

“Zayn, the contract was only for a y-year, I’m a-all yours, and you're all m-mine, now, baby, please, just…”

“I don’t belong to you, and I never will!” Zayn’s voice was becoming raspy from shouting, and he began to feel the familiar feeling of not being able to talk from all the tears, he looked around, Louis and Liam were both looking at him sadly, and Harry just looked so… broken. He had to get out of there. “L-Li, I-I… I need to leave…”

Liam nodded, “I’ve got you covered if the boss asks, don’t worry.”

Zayn hurriedly took his apron off and grabbed his belongings; he was halfway out the door when he felt a strong grip on his arm keeping him from leaving. Harry stood there, holding on to Zayn, hoping that Zayn would change his mind and be with Harry. “I don’t w-want to lose y-you…”

He yanked his arm out of Harry’s grip. “Too late,” he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, and then Zayn left, leaving Harry a broken mess.

Niall came out just in time, finding Louis and Liam looking at the floor sadly and Harry standing in the middle of the store with tears streaming down his face. “Hey, Harry, shit excuse, and I wasn’t eavesdropping.” Niall grinned at all three of them and then made his way toward the door.

“Where are you going, heartless troll?” Louis could’ve sworn Niall worked at the coffee shop.

“Me shift is over, and Zayn promised me food, Harry isn’t gonna ruin that, peace out cub scouts.”


	16. Another New Employee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where the coffee shop gets a surprising new employee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol oops, i forgot i had published this fic on ao3, i've been had chapters updated, I'm so sorry.

The breeze that hit Zayn’s face every now and then was a nice relief from all the drama that has happened in Zayn’s usually boring life. He was sitting on a bench next to Niall, who was enjoying a grilled chicken sandwich Zayn had bought him, and it looked like nothing could come between them.

Even Niall had better luck with love.

“Say, Niall,” Zayn mumbled, he was already beginning to regret his decision in leaving Harry, maybe he should’ve given him a second chance. Doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?

“Hmm?” Niall murmured with his mouth filled with food. Zayn waited for Niall to finish his sandwich and very carefully lick the sauce from the sandwich off of his fingers (Jesus Christ that boy loved food).

“Do you think I did the right thing? Y’know… with the whole Harry situation?” Zayn asked, it had been bothering him for the past 30 minutes, seeing Harry had only reminded him how much he missed him, and it made Zayn’s craving for Harry to be with him again all the more stronger.

Niall looked over at his naïve friend and only smiled. “Zee, if you would’ve done anythin’ differently and got back with him, I probably would’ve given ya hell.”

“Are you sure? I mean… He deserves a second chance, we all make mistakes, yeah?”

“A wise man once said, ‘Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me’ and m’not really sure who this wise man was… or if it was even a man, but it fits, doesn’t it?” Niall stared off into space, probably questioning himself and wondering what the meaning of life was or some shit, it was Niall, after all. “Yeh, it fits.”

There was a comfortable silence surrounding them as Zayn processed the whole situation. Zayn could only think of why he was upset with Harry in the first place, and that was enough to believe Niall and to tell himself that he did, indeed, make the right choice in rejecting Harry. He had to find someone who loved him enough, someone better.

“So… meet any new chicks or anything? We don’t really know about your love life, Ni.”

“That’s ‘cause it doesn’t exist, mate. I’m a single pringle, and I’m completely okay with that ‘cause I fuckin’ love pringles.” Niall and his food, Zayn’s possible OTP.

“Not one person? Really?”

“Considerin’ I had to spend turdy seven minutes tryin’ to get you to stop cryin’, I think that’s a good thing, ain’t it?”

“Aren’t you a peach… bastard. But seriously?” Zayn questions. “Are you telling me you haven’t met  _one_  girl who you felt was right? That’s kinda hard to believe, man.”

“Alright, alright,” Niall mumbled, giving in to Zayn’s astonishment. “There is this one girl, who’s absolutely gorgeous, and I honestly think—”

An obnoxiously loud vibration interrupted Niall, no doubt Zayn’s phone. Zayn sighed. “One second, Ni.”

 _One new text_.

**_7:50 pm From: Loueh -.-_ **

_ur gonna h8 me pls dont h8 me ily_

Zayn raised his eyebrow at the text message, what could he have possibly done?

**_7:50 pm To: Loueh -.-_ **

_what the absolute fuck are u goin on about_

**_7:52 pm From: Loueh -.-_ **

_i may or may not have convinced harry to try and win u back…_

**_7:53 pm To: Loueh -.-_ **

_u couldnt have just left it alone could u_

**_7:55 pm From: Loueh -.-_ **

_thts not the worst part… he kinda took it as a chance to get a job @ the coffee shop to spend more time w/ u_

He stood up almost immediately. “What the fuck?! That little prick…”

“Did Loueh find yer porn again and send it to all yer friends? Wait… you don’t even have friends anymore.”

“Niall, that was, like, 8 years ago, now is not the time.” He grabbed Niall’s arm and started dragging him toward the coffee shop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m glad you decided to want a job here, Mr. Styles, with your reputation, I’m sure you’ll bring in a lot more customers,” Simon, their boss, said, he shook Harry’s hand one more time before leaving the shop.

Harry sighed and sat with Liam and Louis in the booth. “Are you sure this is gonna help me win him back?”

“You’re the one who thought of it, man,” Liam mumbled, he wasn’t going to get blamed for it, that’s for sure, he wasn’t used to feeling ‘Zayn’s wrath’.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Louis took out his phone and began texting, after a couple of minutes he stopped. “I’m pretty sure he’s on his way, or he could’ve gotten killed and that’s why he’s not responding, we’ll find out either way.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later, an angry-looking Zayn stormed into the shop, with a panting, worn out-looking Niall right behind him.

“Jesus, mate,” Niall breathed out, trying to catch his breath. “You run way too fast.”

“What the actual fuck is wrong with you?!” Zayn shouted, glaring at all three of them and already seething.

Liam held up his hands in defense and got up and walked away from the group. “I had nothing to do with this, please don’t hurt me.”

Niall chuckled and nodded toward Liam’s direction, looking at Louis. “Great boyfriend ya have there.”

Louis was about to reply with a witty remark, until Zayn interrupted him. “And you were in on it? Some fucking friend you are. What the fuck, Harry? Really? I’m not something to be ‘won back’ it’s 5,000% over, get it through your thick fucking head.”

“5,000% isn’t a percentage—”

“Shut up, Lou!” Zayn spat, glaring at him, if looks could kill, man, if looks could kill…

“Alright, enough,” Harry said, standing up. “I know I shouldn’t be a dick right now… since that isn’t going to help my cause, but I have a job here and that’s that, nothing you say is going to change that, so stop accusing and threatening people and deal with it… I’m so sorry.” He waved goodbye at all of them and left.

And they probably both have to work the same shift tomorrow, great, fucking great.

Niall whistled at all the events that had happened. “All that drama in one day, huh? Why the hell don’t we get a reality T.V show?”


	17. Who's That Girl?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where a certain someone has a guest who's a girl?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more updates yeaaa

It had been exactly 2 months of Harry working at the coffee place, and Zayn could honestly say he was on the verge of quitting. Harry being sort of famous meant  _a lot_  more customers than usual, and  _a lot_  more tasks Zayn had to do.

That he could somewhat deal with, but Harry was also constantly trying to get Zayn’s attention, and Zayn fell for it every single time. Every time Harry called Zayn’s name desperately from the closet, Zayn immediately went to see him, only to see a smiling Harry taking it as ‘Zayn still caring about him’, every time Harry was with a customer and shouted Zayn’s name in distress, Zayn ran over to see if he could help, only to get Harry smiling again and saying ‘hi’. Zayn fell for all of it, and it was aggravating how easy it was for Harry.

Then there were the god damn cupcakes; the cupcakes that ‘randomly appeared’ in front of Zayn whenever he turned his back away for a mere 2 seconds, as if a giggling Harry in the corner wouldn’t give away who the cupcakes were from.

Each one would be the same vanilla flavored cupcakes – Zayn’s favorite – and would have a different colored frosting and different phrases spelled on top of them every day. Sometimes they would be two or three words, like sweethearts, saying things like ‘love you’, or ‘my baby’. Other times, they would say more things that Zayn would lie if he said didn’t hurt him a little.

Things like ‘I messed up, I’m so sorry’, or an example would be today’s cupcake, which said ‘you’re the only one I’ll ever need’ all squished together.

Zayn did the same thing he always did with them, he’d throw them out, but he wasn’t heartless enough to do it while Harry watched, he waited until Harry was busy to throw them away, let Harry’s imagination go wild on what Zayn did with them.

(He used to feed them to Niall, but the raven-haired man genuinely feared his friend would get diabetes or something from how many of them there were.)

A girl walked in, quickly earning Harry’s attention as he ran over to her and hugged her tightly. Now was his chance, Zayn could throw out the cupcake; he turned to the trash can when... wait, what? Harry hugging a girl? He turned back around and dropped the cupcake on the floor at the sight.

Niall emerged from the storage closet and watched – with a defeated frown – as the cupcake plummeted to its doom. “What the hell, mate? He could’ve had a chance; he could’ve been mine.”

“Who the hell is that?” Zayn asked, pointing at the 5’10 – he guessed, she was really freaking tall –brunette who was talking to Harry who had the biggest smile adorned on his face that Zayn has ever seen.

The blond looked over and gasped, turning to look at Zayn with wide eyes.

“What?! Who is she?!” Zayn asked again, frantically.

Niall shook his head and laughed, smiling. “I was joking, no idea, man.”

Zayn glared at him and pinched his arm, and Niall only scoffed, hissing at Zayn and retreating back into the storage closet.

Liam walked up out of nowhere and frowned as he stared at the frosted mess on the floor that Zayn caused. He was tired, no doubt, the bags under his eyes being a dead giveaway. Louis was sick, having caught the flu, and Liam was probably up all night trying to help a complaining Louis.

Zayn has to remember to thank Liam for being here meaning he doesn’t have to deal with sick Louis anymore.

“Hey,” Zayn started, gaining Liam’s attention from the disheveled cupcake on the floor. “You’re friends with Harry, right?”

Liam raised his eyebrow, it was almost too easy. “Nope, not at all, don’t think I even know a Harry.”

“Ha. Ha. You need to stop hanging out with Louis; the sarcasm’s rubbing off, and the last thing I need is another Louis, one is already way too much.”

He laughed and shook his head, proceeding to begin cleaning the cupcake since Zayn wasn’t planning on doing something about it anytime soon. “Of course I’m friends with him, Zayn. I’ve kinda known him all my life, you know?”

“Good, good, so uh, do you know who that is?” Zayn sheepishly asked, pointing to the direction of Harry still laughing with the girl who had literally been here for 5 minutes and was already causing Zayn distress.

Liam looked over, his face confused as he tried to analyze the brunette, until something finally clicked as he gasped and smiled wide. He turned back to Zayn. “Oh my god, that’s Kendall! I wonder what she’s doing here…”

“That’s not very helpful at all, Liam.”

“Ugh, I wasn’t done. She used to be Harry’s best friend. I didn’t talk to her much; I thought she was trying to steal my place as number 1 best friend, so I hated her, turns out Harry just had a massive crush on her,” Liam explained, shrugging his shoulders and continuing on cleaning the cupcake as if the real matter at hand was no big deal.

He looked back over at the pair and they were still laughing, looking like they were having quite the ball (what was so fucking funny). He furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “But she’s a girl…?”

Liam finished cleaning the cupcake and crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. “Being bisexual is quite the common thing nowadays, Zayn, you should look it up.”

“Please, for my sanity and everyone else’s, stay away from Louis for like… a week?”

“I wish I could,” Liam sighed, pointing to his eyes and then pouting. “He’s got me driving everywhere for things for him like a madman. I told him to get the shoosh darn flu shot, but no, ‘that’s just the government trying to put a tracking device in me’ or ‘the flu has got nothing on me, I am my own vaccine’. Oh, how I hate being right.”

“No one cares, Liam.”

Liam scoffed, “Poohead…” He turned away and went to give his attention to another customer as Zayn watched, yet again, Harry and this ‘Kendall’ girl seem to have a blast in the booth.

She wasn’t all that good looking.

Okay, she was  _kind of_  pretty.

Okay… She was  _really_  pretty.

But that shouldn’t bother Zayn, should it? He’s supposed to hate Harry, but right then all he wanted to do was hate ‘Kendall’. And it scared him because he’s supposed to be moving on from Harry, trying to find someone new, or just stop his brain from thinking about Harry.

But all he’s doing is mentally stabbing Kendall and keeping Harry all to himself.

Oh, god, Zayn was jealous.


	18. They're What?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Kendall are sort of a thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updates updates updates, should be doing my homework...

Harry had left with this new ‘Kendall’ girl as soon as his shift was over, which crushed Zayn since Harry used to wait for Zayn and walk him to his apartment, even though Zayn ignored him the entire time and tried to walk faster to get away from him, but Zayn would never admit to that, not out loud, at least.

Zayn dragged himself to his own apartment around an hour later, feeling lonelier than ever. His best friend was sick, so he couldn’t call up Louis, Liam ignored his texts all the goddamn time, and Niall had to go out on a date with a girl Zayn has yet to meet.

It hurt to know that Harry had actually gotten over him; a part of Zayn wanted that to happen, but another, bigger part of Zayn was hoping it never would.

He caused it, really, he was too stubborn to accept Harry back into his life, and now Harry’s moved on and is actually happy; he hated himself for pushing Harry away, and he hated himself for still loving him.

He sighed as he collapsed on his bed, falling asleep and waiting for the pain in his chest to go away (even though it never did).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day wasn’t much different.

Harry was yet again in a booth with Kendall, and Zayn couldn’t help but stare at them as the two smiled at each other, practically giving the other a loving glance. He found himself squeezing the muffin in his hand as hard as he could, as the customer in front of him stared at him in disbelief.

“Do I have to pay for that…?” the woman asked shyly, frowning as she watched the used-to-be muffin crumble to the floor.

Zayn glared at her as she backed away slowly and out of the store.

“Why the hell haven’t you been fired from here yet?” Louis asked, sitting on a stool on the other side of the counter. Zayn could tell he was still sick due to his voice being changed from the stuffy nose he probably had, that and he was surrounded by a bunch of used tissues.

“Shouldn’t you be quarantined? You’re giving everyone else your disgusting germs,” Zayn retorted as he began cleaning up a few tables.

Louis was about to respond until a very tired-looking Liam came out of the storage closet and rushed over to clean up Louis’s tissues. Louis sighed happily. “What would I do without my Li-Li?”

“Not be a lazy twat,” Zayn mumbled, throwing out a few coffee cups.

“Shut the hell up, you jealous badger,” Louis spat.

“Jealous? Badger? What…?”

Louis rolled his eyes and cleared his throat, which resulted into him coughing terribly, Zayn almost thought he’d cough one of his lungs out. Liam rushed over to him and rubbed his back gently.

Zayn scrunched his face up in disgust. “Ew…”

“I’m okay, thanks for asking, mate,” Louis wheezed out; he wiped his eyes and waited a bit before continuing. “Anyway, the badger part was the flu part of me that couldn’t come up with anything snippy to say, the jealous part was… well, true.”

“He’s right, you know,” Liam added as he kissed Louis’s forehead and continued to rub his back.

Zayn rolled his eyes and looked over at the two as Kendall leaned in to kiss Harry on the cheek, and suddenly, he wasn’t jealous anymore, he was angry.

He walked over to them and crossed his arms, paying no attention to Kendall. “Harry, you have a job, you know? It’s getting busy here, and Liam and I need you.”

Harry raised his eyebrow, surprised at Zayn’s confrontation. “I know… My break isn’t over for another two minutes, relax, mate.”

Mate? That hurt Zayn even though it shouldn’t have.

“I just said it’s getting busy—”

Liam grabbed Zayn by the wrist and dragged him back to where Louis was, he glared at Zayn. “What’s got you so riled up?”

Zayn snatched his wrist away from Liam’s grip. “This is a fucking business, Liam, I’m just trying to keep it running.”

“Oh, please, you know he’s on break, he isn’t irresponsible like that. Plus, his shift is almost over anyway,” Louis snapped as he frowned at Zayn’s behavior.

“He’s been slacking off all day, for fuck’s sake, I’m trying to make things fair around here!”

Liam gripped on to Zayn’s shoulder, causing him to look into Liam’s eyes. “Listen, I know you’re upset, this happens to the best of us, but you need to calm down. This isn’t right and you know it.”

Zayn was about to listen to him, until he saw Kendall leaning in again out of the corner of his eye. And just like that, he felt nothing but anger again.

He moved away from Liam and stormed over to them again. “Listen, Styles, 2 minutes are up, get back to work.”

Harry frowned as he examined Zayn. “What are you? My babysitter? Have you seriously been waiting for 2 minutes?”

“Unlike you, I’m trying to do my job around here, and I’m not going to let you continue being a lazy arse while I double up on work, so do your fucking job,” Zayn spat, glaring daggers at Harry.

Kendall frowned and gently took Harry’s hand. “It’s okay, I’ll text you; you have to get back to work.”

Harry shook his head and glared right back at Zayn. “No, it isn’t okay.” He stood up, towering over Zayn by a couple of inches, and grabbed Zayn by the wrist, dragging him into the storage closet and closing the door behind them. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Zayn yanked his hand away and continued to glare at Harry. “Nothing, I’m trying not to get your ass fired, Styles.”

“Making a scene would get us  _both_ fired, why are you so mad at me?”

Zayn rolled his eyes. “Ever since your little friend got here, you’ve been nothing but lazy, and I’ve been having to do your damn work.”

Harry gave him a questioning glance until he nodded his head. “Oh, I get it, you’re jealous.”

“What the fuck? Not everything’s about you, Harry, I’m not jealous of anything.”

He rubbed his face and sighed. “I know you, Zayn, you’re jealous, denying it only makes it more obvious. Why the hell are you jealous?”

Zayn shoved him and snarled. “Fucking hell, I’m not!”

“You don’t get to be jealous, Zayn, you’re the one who didn’t want to be with me!” Harry yelled as he shoved Zayn right back.

“Well… Shut the fuck up! I’m not jealous!” Zayn spat, shoving him back harder.

“You just… you can’t keep doing things like this!” Harry replied, as he shoved Zayn against the wall and kept him there, staring into his eyes.

“I’m not doing any—”

Zayn was interrupted as he felt Harry’s lips pressed against his own tightly. His eyes widened from the surprise contact, until they fluttered closed as he responded back, gripping on to Harry’s shirt tightly. Their lips moved together as their kiss soon became heated and passionate, trying to make up for an entire year of them not having contact with each other, feeling Harry’s tongue against his only made the kiss all the more enticing.

And in instant it was over, as Harry pulled away, leaving Zayn breathless and craving more.

Harry took a moment to catch his breath and shook his head, rubbing his face. “No, this isn’t right… I’m just…” He stared at the floor and then walked out the closet.

Zayn left the closet a short while after feeling confused and upset. He heard the bell chime and looked over to the door to see Harry and Kendall rushing out, hand-in-hand.

“Uhh… Where are they going…?” Zayn asked, pointing over to where Harry and Kendall used to be.

Liam shrugged. “Harry wanted to leave a few minutes early for a date - they’re dating, I guess - so I let him since there aren’t many people in here.”

“Wait… they’re what?”


	19. New Year's Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis has a party, and shit happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can't write smut for shit, I'm saving you guys from horror, promise.

Zayn fixed his beanie on tightly and shoved his hands in his coat as the snow fell all around him. He stood outside of the coffee shop, having just closed up early due to it being New Year’s; he sighed to himself and shut his eyes, dreading the thought of having to see Harry again at Louis’s New Year’s party.

It had been exactly 2 weeks since they last kissed, and Harry ignored him at every chance he had; every time Zayn pulled him aside, he made an excuse, saying ‘the customers need me’ or ‘I have to pee’, and Zayn was getting real fucking tired of being left, looking like an idiot.

The thing was Harry was still with Kendall, and he wanted to pretend whatever occurred in the closet that day never happened, and Zayn wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

So, he promised himself he’d confront Harry at the New Year’s party.

Only confrontation wasn’t exactly Zayn’s strong suit especially ‘talking about his feelings’, something Zayn was completely unfamiliar with, which was why Zayn wished he was an ant and none of this even mattered.

His hazel eyes snapped open as he heard his phone vibrating; he answered it quickly, already expecting a call from Louis.

“Zayn, darling!” Louis exclaimed, already cured from the flu, unfortunately.

Zayn sighed and shivered as he brushed snowflakes off of his body. “What do you want, Lou?”

“Can you do your best friend the biggest favor?”

“Sure, just text Niall and have him call me,” Zayn snickered, he heard Liam chuckle in the background and only fist bumped the air in victory.

“That’s not fucking funny at all; I hate you,” Louis spat.

“Hate isn’t going to get you anything, you shit, what do you want?”

“Run by the bakery and pick up my order for my birthday/New Year’s cake, por favor.”

Zayn rolled his eyes and began walking down the street. “I still don’t understand why you never let us throw you a party on your actual birthday.”

He heard Louis grunt and sigh. “Because you would all do a piss-poor job at it since you’d probably fight over what I like when none of you have a fucking clue, and besides, I get more presents this way.”

Zayn mentally agreed, although he’d never admit to it out loud, and finally reached the bakery. “Whatever, I’m at the bakery, see you soon.” He hung up and made his way inside, taking off his beanie and brushing his coat for any remaining snowflakes.

“How can I help ya?” the man behind the counter asked, a smile adorning his face.

“Um, I’m here to pick up an order for Louis Tomlinson?”

The man looked through some papers and his smile grew wider. “It’ll be done in just a few moments, we’ll call your name when it’s done.”

Zayn nodded his head and sat down, taking his phone out and scrolling through Facebook. The bell chimed signifying a customer just walked in, and Zayn paid no mind to it, until he heard the familiar deep voice that haunted him in his repetitive dirty dreams.

He looked over and could only watch as Harry and Kendall went to the counter and ordered a few sweets, giggling to themselves here and then, and then they were walking toward the booth right in front of Zayn.

_Fuck._

Kendall first noticed Zayn and walked right over, pulling Harry along. “Oh my god, Zayn, hi! What are you doing here?”

Zayn plastered on his best fake smile. “Uh, hey, I’m just picking something up for Louis…”

“No kidding? That’s so weird! We weren’t even gonna walk in, but I saw someone eating a muffin and I just craved something sweet so badly afterward…”

Zayn kept on nodding his head as he ignored the rest of her chatter, was she always that annoying? He could see out of the corner of his eye Harry was staring at the floor intently, that shit.

“And then I see you, and it’s just such a coin—”

“Yeah, that’s crazy, Harry, can I speak with you for a moment?” Zayn interrupted her, and she seemed to pay no mind to it as she smiled and looked over at Harry.

Harry’s eyes widened at Zayn’s wanting to speak with him, he never asked in front of Kendall. “Um… we can speak right here…”

Zayn narrowed his eyes at him, he was really testing his limits. “You sure you want to have this discussion right here? In front of people? Really? By all means, let’s talk about how we—”

“You’re right!” Harry exclaimed, handing Kendall the bag of goods quickly. “Let’s go talk.” He turned on his heel and started heading down the store.

Zayn only followed him as he entered the men’s bathroom. The bathroom, what? What’s wrong with outside?

As soon as the door shut behind him, Zayn started fuming. “What the fuck is wrong with—”

Harry yet again surprised him as he swiftly grabbed Zayn’s face, backed him up against the wall, and kissed him fiercely. He pulled away and rested his forehead against Zayn’s “I’ve been wanting to do that for the past two weeks, you’re so fucking hot,” he mumbles against Zayn’s lips before leaning in and kissing him again, wasting no time in slipping his tongue into Zayn’s mouth, making out with him, and pressing up against him so tightly. Zayn could feel his pants tightening as he whimpered into Harry’s mouth at the feeling of Harry’s hard d*ck in his tight jeans so close to his own.

But then, Kendall came to mind, and he shoved Harry away.

Harry stared at him, confused, and Zayn had to control himself when he stared at Harry’s bright red, plump lips. Kendall, he thought, remember. “Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, his breath heavy.

“You… You kiss me one moment, and then ignore me and stay with… with her, and just… I’m so fucking confused,” Zayn admitted, avoiding Harry’s gaze.

Harry sighed and shook his head, his brown curls bouncing. He walked right out of the door without a second glance, and Zayn was just about ready to punch the wall.

Zayn followed a bit afterward and made it in time to see Harry and Kendall leaving the shop hastily. He shook his head as he got the cake and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Louis looked Zayn over twice before he frowned. “All I see is the cake, where’s my present?”

Zayn dropped the cake on the kitchen counter before landing on Liam and Louis’s couch with a thud. “Jesus Christ, Lou, is walking outside in the freezing cold while it’s snowing to get your damn cake not enough for you?”

Louis stared at him expectantly. “No.”

Zayn stared right back and sighed, giving up and fishing Louis’s present out of his pocket, handing it to him.

He squealed in delight and ran off to place it with the other few presents already starting to pile up in the kitchen.

Two hours had passed by after that and the party was in full swing, meaning alcohol everywhere as well as a lot of people Zayn didn’t know at all and didn’t think Louis knew either.

Harry and Kendall had already arrived at the party and Zayn was avoiding them the whole time since that’s the game Harry seemed to want to play.

Niall rushed over to Zayn and interrupted his glaring at ‘Hendall’ with a pat on the back. “’Ey, mate, let’s go play some beer pong, yeah? It’ll take yer mind off of things.”

Niall’s rosy cheeks indicated that he was already a bit tipsy, but, hey, he’s Irish, he can handle a few more cups of beer (it surprised Zayn how much the small man could drink, but he never questioned it). He could see Kendall and Harry drinking and laughing, having a good time out of the corner of his eye, so he thought, why not? What could go wrong?

Except after 3 games, he realized Niall was a fucking beast at beer pong even when tipsy and could feel himself becoming very drunk.

“Holy shit, man,” Zayn slurred, having to sit down as he just lost his third game to Niall. “When did you get so fucking good at that?”

Niall laughed, finishing his own cups of beer, and burping loudly. “Since I was a wee lad.”

“They fucking let you drink as a small child?!” Zayn exclaimed.

“I wouldn’t be Irish if they didn’t, take a break, mate, I’m gonna go to the kitchen and steal food, even though I’ve been banned by Liam, apparently.” He rushed off out of sight into a crowd of people.

The loud music was starting to bother Zayn, so he got up and stumbled into the hallway, heading toward Louis’s unused room (it was meant for Liam, but Liam obviously had no intention of sleeping without Louis). He heard footsteps behind him, but he was too drunk to care.

He walked inside the room and someone else followed in suit, shutting the door behind them. Zayn kept his back toward them and sighed, blinking until the room stopped spinning. “If you’re gonna rape me, please don’t.”

He heard the familiar deep chuckle and turned around quickly, nearly falling over in doing so.

Harry put his arms out to help him, but Zayn only slapped them away. “Don’t you touch me, you craphole.”

“Craphole? Wow, you really are drunk.”

“No, mah name’s Zen,” Zayn hissed, glaring at Harry.

“You got me there,” Harry agreed, nodding his head. “Your name is Zayn.”

“What do you want? Shouldn’t you be with that girl with brown hair who’s really tall for no reason and talks way too much for me to understand her half of the time?”

Harry sighed and shook his head. “Zayn—”

“No!” Zayn exclaimed, walking up to Harry and poking his chest. “Don’t you ‘Zen’ me, I’ll ‘Zen’ myself! Look at me, I’m Harry, who’s really hot and likes to play with people’s feelings and makes Zen love me even though Zen doesn’t want to…”

Harry’s gaze softened. “You still love me…?”

“Huh? What the hell are you talking about?”

Harry chuckled and shook his head, grabbing Zayn’s face softly and staring into his eyes.

Zayn gulped and stared back into the green eyes he grew to adore so much, holding onto Harry’s shirt for support, before leaning in and kissing Harry.

Harry kissed back, knowing just how wrong this was since he had a girlfriend and Zayn was drunk for crying out loud, but he couldn’t help himself, it all felt so right. Their kiss grew intense and heated, and all they could do was breathe into each other’s mouths as they took their clothing off piece by piece as Harry led Zayn back onto the bed and fell on top of Zayn, his hands running all over Zayn’s body.

And dammit, he already knew this was going to be the best night of his life.


	20. From Bad to Worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where things just happen to go down hill into the deep pits of hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more and more updates, just one more for now.

The sun shone right through the window, hitting Zayn’s face and disturbing his rest. He groaned and rubbed his face, sitting up and taking in his surroundings; this wasn’t his room? He looked over and saw a passed out Louis and his eyes widened, and he screamed, kicking Louis off the bed and then falling off himself.

He grew even more panicked when he realized he was naked; he looked around, grabbing his boxers (he’s pretty sure they're his) and grabbing his jeans, getting up to pull them on. He winced in pain as the adrenaline rush subsided and the pain in his head became apparent; he’s never drinking again.

Meanwhile Louis was rolling around the floor in pain and groaning rather loudly; he sat up and rubbed the side of his stomach, the part he landed on, and glared at the already dressed Zayn reaching his hand out to help him up.

Louis slapped his hand away before he got up and fell back onto the bed, snuggling into the sheets.

It seemed like someone was there to take care of him as Zayn looked over and saw some aspirin sitting on the counter right next to a glass of water. He took them hastily; his headache nagging immensely at him. He turned back toward Louis afterward.

“L-Loueh…?” Zayn poked Louis’s head, which Louis responded to by throwing the covers over his head.

Zayn ran a hand through his hair; he sure as hell doesn’t remember having s’ex with his best friend. He was inwardly praying that this was all just some huge joke. “W-We… We didn’t… you know… did we…?”

Louis groaned and threw the covers off of him, sitting up, and glaring at the raven-haired man standing in front of him. “Don’t flatter yourself, Zee. We didn’t do shit.”

“Then why was I—”

“Naked?” Louis asked, raising his eyebrow before Zayn nodded his head in confirmation. “Beats the hell out of me. Liam and I had sort of a… falling out, I guess you could say; he stormed out and I got lonely, so I snuck in here. It’s quite uncomfortable sleeping next to you naked, Zayn, and you mumble in your sleep, freak. All I can tell you is I saw Harry leaving looking quite panicked.”

“Fuck…” Zayn cursed, the previous night hitting him like a ton of bricks; he had drunken s’ex with Harry,  _s’ex with Harry_. He had to deal with this later (like  _really_ later, maybe in 3 years?). “Hold on, falling out with Li? You two have been inseparable lately; what the fuck is this about? What’d you do?”

“Why does everyone insist on blaming me?” Louis groaned, glaring at Zayn.

“Everyone?”

“Okay, maybe just you… But if I were to tell Niall, he’d probably pin it on me, too, that shit.”

“Is it your fault?”

Louis rubbed the back of his head and kept his gaze on the edge of the bed. “Maybe,” he whispered.

Zayn sat on the bed next to Louis and reached his hand out, wrapping his own around Louis’s hand. “You can tell me, mate; what happened?”

Louis smiled sadly before he sighed, a few tears pricking at the edge of his eyes. “W-Well… To make a long story short, I got drunk, made out with my ex-boyfriend, Liam saw, and well, you know the rest…”

“You invited your ex-boyfriend to your party?”

“I wanted to show Liam off…” Louis pouted, shoving his face into his hands.

Zayn got up and took out his phone and looked for Liam’s contact before clicking call.

A few rings later and sure enough Liam picked up sounding broken. “I s-swear, Lou, if this is y-you using Zayn’s phone—”

“No, Li, it’s me,” Zayn spoke, he held up a finger when Louis made grabby hands at his cellphone.

“Oh… Well, w-what’s up, Zayn?”

Zayn looked over at Louis, Louis looking up at him expectantly with such sadness in his eyes. “You need to talk about what happened with Lou.”

He heard Liam scoff over the phone. “We  _did_  talk, last night to be exact; I told him to piss off and that’s all you need to know.”

“Louis was drunk; how the hell could you maintain an accurate conversation with him? Just talk to him, Li, hear him out; he’s broken without you.”

Silence ensued as Liam processed it over; if he had to admit, he felt quite broken without Louis, too. He sighed, giving up. “Alright, alright… Tell him I’m over Harry’s flat.”

“Harry’s flat…?”

“Is that a problem?”

“U-Uh, n-no,” Zayn stuttered, “Not at all… He’ll be right over.” Zayn hung up and looked at Louis, hoping that for once his gut was wrong and Louis didn’t want him to come with him.

“What? Jesus, Zayn, I can’t take the tension, what’d he say?” Louis asked, grabbing Zayn’s hand.

Zayn squeezed Louis’s hand before shaking it out of his grip. “He said to meet him at Harry’s flat. Gotta go,” Zayn said hurriedly, making his way toward the door.

And there it was, the quietest of whispers, as if Louis didn’t want to bother Zayn, but Zayn still heard it.

“Can you come with me?”

Zayn stopped in the doorway and closed his eyes,  _so close._  He turned around and saw Louis’s big puppy eyes that only seemed to work on him and Liam (Zayn’s such a sucker for these types of things). “Fine, fine… Get dressed, I’ll be waiting up front.”

Louis squealed in delight before running past Zayn and into his and Liam’s bedroom to get changed.

Well, shit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were currently both parked in front of Harry’s apartment complex; Louis’s hands were gripping the wheel tightly, as if his life depended on it.

Zayn laid a hand on his shoulder, which caused Louis to look at him, and he smiled. “You lads belong together, yeah? Don’t worry too much over this, Liam’s obsessed with you.”

Louis nodded his head and returned the smile; he got out of the car and made his way inside, Zayn following in suit.

When they reached Harry’s door, Louis knocked eagerly before hiding behind Zayn (Zayn could only roll his eyes, Louis used to be able to curse out a little kid and then proceed to curse out the mother when she decided to give him shit, what happened to him?). And all thoughts seemed to leave Zayn when the door opened and there was Harry, right in front of him, staring intensely at him.

It was silent between them; Harry gave Zayn a sad smile, and Zayn only looked right through him, keeping his lips in a thin line. Louis sensed the tension between them and quickly grabbed Zayn’s wrist, pulling him inside past Harry.

Liam was sat by the window in one of Harry’s chair, and Kendall was sitting right next to him, rubbing his back soothingly.

Kendall, of all the people in the world.

Louis ran over to Liam and tapped his shoulder, and as soon as they both saw each other, they both began crying.

“W-Why, Louis, why would you do that?” Liam choked out.

Louis tried to grab Liam’s hand, but Liam only got up and walked away from him. “Li, please, it was a mistake, honest. You know you’re the only one I love.”

“If you really loved me, you would have never cheated on me in the first place,” Liam spat.

Louis glared at him and crossed his arms. “Well if you paid a bit more attention to me at the party instead of spending all your time with  _Andy_ , maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

Liam laughed menacingly, and Zayn took the time to sit down on the couch (away from Harry’s bullshit (Kendall, too)). Liam ran a hand through his hair as he shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re trying to pin this on  _me._ ”

“I’m not!” Louis exclaimed, “I’m just saying, it was my fucking birthday, and you weren’t even with me half of the time.”

“Louis! For fucks sake, what the fuck has this got to do with anything? You  _cheated_  on me; why are you trying to turn this shit around?”

Louis groaned and threw a pillow at Liam in aggravation. “It was a little bit of kissing that didn’t mean anything! You’re making a big deal out of nothing!”

“I can’t, Louis, I can’t deal with this shit anymore. You never take responsibility for your actions, and I can barely handle you anymore; you never even apologized to me, what does that say about you…?”

Louis hastily wiped away at the many tears that were being shed. “L-Li… I don’t k-know what you want f-from me…”

Liam rubbed his already red eyes with his hand; he turned to away from Louis, this is the only way he could do this. “M-Maybe it’s best i-if we… We just break up.”

“Liam, don't—”

“We’re over, Louis,” Liam whispered, his voice cracking.

Louis’s eyes filled with more tears before he sobbed into his hand and ran out of Harry’s flat. Zayn’s own heart honestly hurt from this; he never expected this from Louis and Liam. He got up and made his way out, following Louis. He stopped in the hallway when he heard Harry’s door open and closed; he turned around expecting Liam, but it was Harry.

Harry stared at him, his eyes pleading. He walked up to him and gripped both of Zayn’s hands in his own. “Zayn…”

Zayn snatched his hands away from Harry and glared. “You’ve got a girlfriend to get back to, yeah?” he spat, before turning on his heel and walking away.

“Zayn, please!” Harry yelled, he didn’t have it in him to chase after him.

“Fuck off, Harold!” Zayn yelled right back before leaving the building and getting into the car, driving for Louis since Louis was a sobbing mess.

When did everything go from bad to worse?


	21. Operation 'Sleepover'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> niall plots world domination (not really)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last update for now

“Oh, Rosie, he doesn’t even love you!” Louis exclaimed at the television as he brought yet another white tissue to his face and blew his nose into it.

Zayn leaned over in his chair to see Louis from the kitchen; he was in a mess of blankets on the couch with used tissues surrounding him. He wasn’t even sick. He leaned back over and sighed. “The telly isn’t even on.”

“S’just Lou bein’ dramatic,” Niall said, eating a bowl of cereal he had no problem at all with stealing from Zayn’s cabinet.

“That or he’s finally gone mad,” Zayn mumbled while he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

A week had gone by since Louis and Liam had broken it off; Louis stopped going to the coffee shop, which made him a thousand times worse to be around with his constant grumpiness. Whenever Zayn tried to make a harsh comment back to Louis after receiving one, Louis would break down in tears; so it’s not like Zayn could hand his asshole-ness back to him anymore.

Surprisingly enough, Liam seemed to be fine whenever Zayn had to go work at the coffee shop. But then again, that could be because Simon had yelled at them for being ‘shit employees and knowing it’.

Who knows?

The point was that Zayn was never alone with Louis constantly being at his apartment. Louis only left for an hour or so to bring clothes and toothpaste (apparently Zayn’s tasted toominty) and slept over every day; it was the same routine day by day, Louis would leave for a bit in the morning, come back and use up Zayn’s bathroom for 2 fucking hours, mope around all day, promise Zayn he’d sleep on the couch, wake up at three in the morning (it  _never_ failed), crawl into bed with Zayn, and proceed to take up the entire bed, kicking Zayn a whole fucking lot.

It had officially been the worst week of his life.

Zayn believed he had a better night’s sleep during finals week, and that’s really saying something.

In simple terms, Zayn looked and felt like shit. As if he were the one going through the break-up.

“Ya look like shit, mate,” Niall laughed, slurping his milk even though he  _knew_ Zayn hated him doing that.

“Can’t you take him for one goddamn night?” Zayn pleaded. He needed rest desperately,  _d_ es _perately._

“Nope,” Niall began, putting the dish in the sink (without fucking washing it) and sitting back down. “We agreed on this already, you get to be the best man at his wedding, ‘member?”

There was thump followed by a loud cry. “Zaaaaaaayn,” Louis whined, dragging out his name even though Zayn hated it (Zayn hated a lot of things lately).

Zayn took a hold of one of Niall’s hand in distress and stared into the bright, blue eyes he’d grown to know. “One night, is all I ask,  _one_.”

Niall squinted his eyes in thought, tapping his chin even though he never did that, and Zayn knew it. “Hmm… Waste me precious time tending after a distraught Lou, or having fun?”

Zayn was about 100% sure Niall didn’t know what distraught meant.

“Zaaayn!” He heard the same whine again only louder this time, so he kept that knowledge to himself.

He got off of the chair and on to his knees (it was that bad) in front of Niall, looking up at him. “Please, I’m begging here, Ni, and you know I don’t do that, have a fucking heart, you oompa loompa.”

“M’pretty sure we’re the same height.”

“ _Niall.”_

“Alright, alright, Zee, I’ll do it. Get up, man, have some dignity.” Niall grinned as Zayn leapt up in joy and held him in a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Zayn yelled while repeatedly kissing Niall’s forehead.

“Hold on there, mate. There’s a but to this,” Niall mentioned as he pushed Zayn gently off of him.

“What are you talking about? The only ‘butt’ here is Louis. And ‘butt’ is too nice, I’d go with something more along the lines of ‘shithole’.”

Niall raised his eyebrow, and Zayn ‘supposedly’ went to college. “I meant in pertinence to our situation.”

“Did you eat a fucking dictionary by accident, what the hell?” Oops, was that out loud?

“I’m gonna ignore that,” Niall sighed and rolled his eyes. “Anyway, yer gonna hafta come along with, Zaynie.”

“With? The whole fucking point is for me to be  _away_ from that demon.”

“My only rule, least ya won’t be alone.”

Zayn bit his lip as he thought about it, maybe he wouldn’t have to do all of the work. Yes, this was good. Good. “Okay…”

“Great!” Niall exclaimed, getting up and putting on his coat.

“Where are you going?”

“Still have got a life, Zee. See ya around my place at 6ish?” He was heading toward the door while Zayn was following closely behind. He opened it and stepped out.

“Niall, don’t you dare leave me alone with—”

Niall only saw a glimpse of unruly, brown hair as Zayn was taken by his shirt sleeve and dragged out of his sight. He shrugged and closed the door, hopefully Zayn would survive for the ‘sleepover’.

Niall continued to walk down the familiar sidewalk. Everything was all too close, he was probably the only one to notice.

After walking a few blocks over, he headed up Liam’s apartment complex (not forgetting to stop by the vending machine for a quick bite. Cereal doesn’t count as a meal) and knocked on his door.

A worn-out looking Harry answered it slowly. He smiled nonetheless at Niall’s presence, even if he looked like he was ready to fall into a coma. Niall found it pretty ironic that Harry and Zayn were in the same predicament.

Harry wasn’t as big of an asshole as Zayn was, though, he was pretty sure Harry never yelled at Liam to stop crying and get away (‘putrid tosser’ was what Zayn used, he thinks) because he was staining his jeans (then again, he was pretty sure Liam didn’t cry at silly shit like the remote being too far away).

And maybe Niall was wrong when he hears Liam let out a sob while coming over and tugging on Harry’s shirt sleeve. “T-There’s no more milk…” he mumbled.

Harry’s smile slightly faltered before he regained his fake happiness again. “Look, it’s Niall, Li, say hi to him.”

Liam looked over at Niall and examined him for a few seconds. “Did you bring m-milk…?” Liam questioned, softly.

“Uh… no?”

Liam whined and shuffled back to the couch, falling onto it.

“Sorry about that,” Harry said sheepishly, “He’s been like that—”

“For a week, yeah, sounds about right.”

Harry nodded, looking over his shoulder to check on Liam before returning his attention to Niall. “Did you wanna come in?”

Niall shook his head, smiling. “Nah, just came t’ ask ya laddies if ya wanted to sleepover my flat tonight. It’d be good to spend some time, haven’t really spoken to ya in a while.”

Harry genuinely smiled this time. “You hear that, Li? Niall wants us to have a sleepover at his place.”

Liam only responded by moaning out a ‘Miiiiilk’.

“That means yes,” Harry said, even though it was probably just Liam still wanting milk. “What time?”

“Hm, 7ish?” He couldn’t have them both showing up at the same time, seeing each other in the hallway, and running away like the four of them always do.

“Okay,” Harry agreed, nodding and smiling before waving goodbye and closing the door to tend to his friend.

Niall smirked to himself as he headed back to his flat to prepare for the night.

It was all almost too easy.


	22. Niall the Counselor Part 1 - Zarry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Niall is the counselor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 22 already, wow, lol hope you guys enjoy x

Niall stared at the door as soon as the clock read 7:00 pm. Louis was sitting on the floor, reading a book about ‘everyone pooping’ (Niall probably only got that because he found the title hilarious) and mumbling incoherently. Zayn was passed out on the couch, taking up the whole damn thing.

7:01

Damn it, when he said ‘7ish’, he meant 7 on the dot, why couldn’t he just say 7 on the fucking dot?

7:02

That was it, his whole plan ruined. They weren’t coming, and he was stuck with babysitting Louis because Zayn looked like he wasn’t getting up anytime soon.

But then the knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. He jumped up and rushed toward the door, opening it swiftly to see a somber Liam and a gleeful Harry.

“Did you order pizza, leprechaun? I could use a pizza,” Louis said, looking up from the book.

Niall immediately pushed both of them inside as soon as Liam’s head perked up at the sound of Louis’s voice. Louis’s eyes grew tenfold, and he jumped to his feet. “What the fuck?!”

Liam turned around to reach for the doorknob, but Niall was quicker as he rushed in front of it so that Liam couldn’t make his escape. “No, none of ya are leaving without having a talk.”

“We already talked,” Liam argued, crossing his arms and glaring at Niall.

“Not appropriately, and this is gonna be a  _group_ discussion. Everyone can include their opinion.” Niall nodded over to where Zayn and Louis were.

“Um, I’d rather not get in Louis and Liam’s business,” Harry mentioned quietly, looking back and forth between the two fuming people, not daring to look at each other.

“Who says it’s just 'bout Liam and Louis?” Niall asked, raising his eyebrow.

Harry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What d’you mean?”

“Don’t think I’m lettin’ you and Zee here off of the hook; you two have got problems needing serious discussion.”

Harry’s eyes widened as he gulped. “But, I have Kend—”

“Oh, fuck this, me and Zaynie are out of here, we can take you, Niall, right, Zee?” Louis questioned, looking down at Zayn.

Zayn remained past out on the couch, oblivious to the drama going on around him.

Louis glared at the much asleep raven-haired boy and poked him with his foot. “Zayn,” he spat, trying to get his attention.

Zayn merely grumbled and turned around, hiding his face in the couch. “Go the fuck away, Lou, you can take my bed, just for fuck’s sake let me sleep.”

Niall didn’t fail to notice the small smile forming on Harry’s face, and the way his eyes shone brighter at Zayn’s sleep deprived grumpiness.

“ _Zayn!”_  Louis exclaimed louder, grabbing the book and hitting him as hard as he could.

Zayn shot up in a sitting position and grabbed his head. “Fucking hell, Louis, does me being sleep-deprived bring you some sort of… sick joy…” His words trailed off as he noticed the two other individuals in the room, and Niall blocking the door as if his life depended on it before he sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Of fucking course, Niall, of fucking course.”

“As I was saying,” Louis stated turning his attention back toward Niall. “Zayn and I can take you down no problem, Ni—”

“I’m not hitting Niall, you fucking—”

“Oh, come on, Zayn, it wasn’t going to be for real, it was an empty threat, you shit—”

“Some empty threat, you gave your whole fucking plan away, you demon—”

“Okay!” Niall exclaimed, interrupting the feud between Zayn and Louis. He clapped his hands together and motioned for Liam and Harry to join Zayn and Louis. “Gather ‘round, children, it’s time for yer counseling. Oh, wait!” Niall left for his bedroom and rummaged through some things before emerging back in the living room with fake glasses on and a pen and paper. “More official.”

Harry hesitantly sat on the couch, frowning a little when Zayn scooted away from him. Liam sat in between them and Louis remained on the floor in between Zayn’s legs.

Niall grabbed one of his chairs from the kitchen and sat directly in front of Liam who seemed to be in the middle of the group. He took out his pen and paper, writing their names at the top of it. “’Kay, who wants t’ go first?”

It was silent as the four men looked at each other, refusing to be the first to speak. Niall groaned and rubbed his head. “Fine, Zarry go first.”

“Zarry…?” Harry questioned.

“Yeh, it’s my ship name for you and Zayn, like it?” Niall responded, grinning widely.

Louis scoffed and crossed his arms. “How come I don’t get one?”

“Ya do, you and Liam are Lilo.”

“Like… Lilo and Stitch?”

“Shut up, Liam. It’s different.” Niall sighed and looked back and forth between Zayn and Harry. “’Kay, one of ya can go now.”

“Niall, I already told you, I’m with Kendall,” Harry replied, frowning and shaking his head.

Zayn rolled his eyes to that. “Could’ve fooled me.”

Niall took out his notepad and ‘wrote’ something down (he was actually drawing a dinosaur). “Uh huh, and Zayn, how does Harry being with Kendall make ya feel?”

Zayn scratched the back of his head and pulled at the collar of his t-shirt. “Um… Well, it makes me feel… Sorta like, y’know…”

“Excuse my friend here, he doesn’t know how to talk about his ‘feelings’,” Louis stated, slapping Zayn on the back.

“Fuck you, Louis,” Zayn spat in return, slapping Louis’s arm just as hard.

Louis glared at Zayn. “Don’t blame me for your emotional constipation.”

“Emotional… constipation…” Niall said aloud, pretending to write it down (he was really just drawing the spikes on his T-Rex).

“Don’t write that down!” Zayn exclaimed, shoving his hands in his hair and pulling the ends lightly; everyone was giving him a headache.

Louis merely shrugged. “He’s not even writing anything, fucker’s probably drawing a dinosaur or some shit.”

Oh, fuck. “So, Harry, what do ya hafta say ‘bout yer sexual encounters with Zayn?” Niall quickly changed the subject.

“Uh, what…?” Harry spluttered, eyes widening.

“Ya know, you and Zayn doing the dirty.” Niall kept his gaze on a now-blushing Harry.

“I don’t know what you’re t-talking about.”

“See?!” Zayn exclaimed, standing up abruptly from the couch. “You always fucking do that! You… You make me believe we have a second chance, and you just… You pretend nothing happened and avoid me. That fucking hurts, Harry.”

Harry stood up as well and poked at Zayn’s chest. “I tried to talk to you about it, dammit. You’re the one who left while I tried to explain!”

Zayn slapped Harry’s hand away and glared. “Oh, talk to you so you could just say that what we did never happened and that you’re still with Kendall? Yeah, I’d so love to be a part of that conversation.”

“Well, it’s true! I’m still with her; I have to think about how she feels!”

“Fucking please, Harry, if you would’ve thought about her, we wouldn’t have had sex,” Zayn spat.

Harry rubbed his head as he calmed himself down. “I-I just… I don’t want to end things with her…”

Zayn froze at that as he felt tears begin to build up; he forced them down; no, he would not cry in front of Harry, not again. “Then why are you leading me on?”

“Because… I—” Harry sighed deeply, interrupting himself, must as well just say it. “I still have feelings for you, and I’m afraid to be with you at the same time.”

Zayn’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Harry was afraid to be with him? “Why?”

“Kendall is safe for me. I wouldn’t care if one day she realizes she can find better and breaks up with me. But when we broke up… It just… It really fucking hurt… badly. I couldn’t think straight at all in America. I’ve never felt so much pain over a break-up before, and that scared me.” Harry could feel a few tears slide down his cheek, but he immediately brushed those away. “I know I tried to win you back, but I didn’t think you’d ever give me another chance. And when you kissed me back that day in the closet… I just became scared all over again, scared that we’d break-up, and I was forced to be left feeling empty again.”

Zayn hesitantly reached over and held on to Harry’s hand, squeezing a bit; he missed the feeling of holding Harry’s hand. His other hand reached up and cupped the side of Harry’s face; he missed  _this_. He smiled lightly. “Isn’t that the point of a relationship? You keep trying because you’re afraid of losing them. You’re not supposed to be okay with the thought of not having them anymore; that isn’t love.”

Harry couldn’t help but smile in return before he enveloped Zayn in a tight hug, kissing the top of his head as Zayn burrowed his face in Harry’s neck and breathed in his scent. “I’ll try if you try?”

“Okay,” Zayn responded, nodding against Harry.

Niall took the time to lean over and whisper in Liam’s ear while nudging him, “Didn’t think this would work; go me!”

Liam rolled his eyes and pushed Niall away.

Louis wiped the tears on his face as he sniffled. “T-That’s so freaking cute,” he hiccupped, “I ship it. I ship it so much.”

“Alright!” Niall clapped his hands together. “Liam and Louis’s turn.”

Liam’s going to need some aspirin.


	23. Niall the Counselor Part 2 - Lilo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where Niall tries to be a counselor again and get Liam and Louis to sort out their differences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i understand if you hate this story; it kinda is sucky

Zayn and Harry sat on the floor next to each other while Niall forced Louis to take the seat next to Liam on the couch.

“’Kay…” Niall trailed off as he examined the piece of paper, making it seem like he had Liam and Louis’s history written on it. “So Lou kissed his ex, and Liam got mad, right?”

“I said I was sorry!” Louis exclaimed, glaring at Liam who simply rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Liam rubbed his forehead (already prepared for the growing headache that was starting to form). “You never did, Louis, fuck’s sake.”

“Well, I’m sorry. There? You fucking happy?!”

“No! I’m not! I’m far from happy. This isn’t even about the kiss anymore— Fuck, just forget it. Forget it!” Liam yelled as he hastily got up and grabbed his coat. 

Niall didn’t hesitate to run over to the door and block it with his body again. “Any of ya leave, I’m never talkin’ to ya again, understood?”

Liam sighed in defeat before he headed back over to the couch and sat down with his arms crossed, huffing angrily. The last thing any of them wanted was to have Niall upset with them; Niall’s usual happiness would never fail to lift their moods, and they couldn’t handle not having that (Niall would be lying if he said he didn’t know that; so, yeah, maybe he was being a bit manipulative).

He sat back down in his ‘counselor’s chair’ and drew a smiley face on his dinosaur. “What’s it about now, Li?”

“Nothing. Forget about it.”

Louis turned to Liam and grabbed his face in his hands, forcing his attention on Louis. “Why isn’t it about the kiss? What do you want?”

Liam gently pried Louis’s hands off of him and held one of his hands in both of his own. “You’re too much for me sometimes, Louis. It’s hard to be with you. Which is why I wanted a break from you.”

Louis yanked his hand out of Liam’s grip and turned away from him. “You aren’t all great yourself, asshole. I don’t  _do_ breaks. You’re either with me or you’re not.”

“Then I guess I’m not.”

“You both just need to understand where the other’s coming from; you’re being stubborn,” Harry said; Zayn was quick to grab his hand and give it a sweet kiss. Harry didn’t fail to smile.

“Both of you just fucking shut up and stay out of it.”

“What the hell, Lou? I didn’t even say anything.” Zayn glared at Louis from his spot on the floor.

He shook his head and ignored them both. “What do you want from me!?” Louis stood up and began pacing the room; a habit he did to calm himself down. “What the hell do I have to do for you to be with me? Why are you being such a fucking twat?! You were desperate enough for me in the beginning, so why the sudden anxiousness to get away from me?”

“ _Louis,_ ” Zayn spoke, his tone warning him to take it easy.

“No! He’s saying all this shit about me, Zayn. I can’t fucking take that. So.” He turned back to Liam and walked toward him, staring down at him. “What the fuck do you want from me?”

Liam got up from his place on the couch, towering over Louis with his own glare on his face. “I don’t want anything from you; that’s why I’m doing this. You’re not forced to spend two fucking minutes with yourself, so you wouldn’t understand.”

“Alright, lads, let’s just take it easy—”

“No, Niall, let him hear this,” Liam interrupted him, taking his eyes off of Louis for a second before returning the harsh gaze he had on him. “You’re obnoxious. You’re needy. You’re even more desperate than I was since the only reason you don’t want us to break up is so that you’re not left alone. You can’t do anything for yourself, and it’s hard to be around you for more than ten fucking minutes.”

Louis froze and looked away from him. He loved Liam; he loved him so much. He thought back to all those nights where he cried because he thought he wasn’t good enough for Liam, and Liam was right there to remind him how stupid he was being. All of that was torn to pieces as Liam’s words repeated themselves in his head. Liam knew how insecure Louis was, and he completely ignored that and went ahead and pointed out all of his flaws.

Liam wasn't the only one who knew about Louis's insecurity; Zayn knew, too, which was why before Louis could respond back or simply leave the room, he stormed over to Liam and punched him straight in the nose.

Liam hissed in pain as he tumbled toward the floor, clutching his now-bleeding nose, and staring at Zayn with pure disbelief.

“Don’t you fucking look at me like that, Liam. You drew the fucking line, you cunt,” Zayn cursed. He was quick to reel his arm back (once Liam stood back up) and punch him again, but Harry ran over to him and pulled him back away from Liam, stopping him before his fist landed on Liam.

Zayn was practically seething by now and just looking over at Louis – who had taken the opportunity to isolate himself away from the group and silently cry in the corner – only fueled his anger even more. “Let me fucking go, Harry. Let me go!” He growled, thrashing against Harry.

Niall went over to Zayn and began whispering soothing words in his ear to calm him down. He knew Zayn had quite the temper, but the amount of times he was with an angry Zayn helped him understand how to calm him down.

Once Zayn was relaxed enough to not rush over to Liam and choke him to death, Harry let him go. Niall remained with him, speaking softly in his ear.

“Y-You need to go,” Louis choked out, his back facing Liam.

Liam was still clutching his nose to stop the bleeding; he merely scoffed and opened the door to leave. He turned back to Harry. “You coming?”

“I, uh…” Harry trailed off as he looked back and forth between his best friend and the love of his life.

“Fine,” Liam spat. He left the apartment and slammed the door on the way out.

Harry sighed, knowing he had to go with Liam; Liam couldn’t be left alone, and Zayn had Niall and Louis. He turned to Zayn and frowned.

Zayn seemed to understand as he nodded his head. “Go, I’ll text you.”

He smiled sadly before heading out of the apartment to catch up to Liam.

Niall sighed before heading to the bathroom and bringing out a bandage to wrap around Zayn’s bleeding knuckles. He then went to his room and brought out all of the (many) blankets and pillows he owned. Whenever they slept over Niall’s apartment, they usually stayed in the living room floor. Once it was set up, Niall turned off the lights, and they all lied down in silence.

Louis couldn’t help but cry softly to himself. Zayn and Niall both wrapped an arm around their friend who was lying in between them, trying their best to let him know he’d never be alone.

And honestly, it didn’t work. Louis would always feel alone without Liam by his side; Liam’s words echoed through his mind. His heart hurt as every word attacked it, and it hurt even more to know Liam didn’t want him.


End file.
